Pamela Matson, a member of ASU's Board of Directors for Sustainability, will receive the Doctor of Science honorary degree from Arizona State University at the May 14 undergraduate commencement ceremony. The award recognizes her pioneering research, which addresses issues surrounding sustainability of agricultural systems, vulnerability of people and places to climate change, and global change in nitrogen and carbon cycles. She has worked to develop agricultural approaches that reduce environmental impacts while improving livelihoods and human well-being with multidisciplinary teams of researchers, managers and decision-makers.

Matson is a professor of environmental science at Stanford University and an elected member of both the National Academy of Science and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In addition to serving on advisory boards for ASU's Global Institute of Sustainability and Colorado State University's School of Global Environmental Sustainability, she has held positions on numerous National Academies' committees, including the Board on Sustainable Development, the Board on Global Change and the Committee on America’s Climate Choices.  She was awarded the prestigious MacArthur Fellowship in 1995 for her trailblazing work.