Deborah Goldberg, PhD

Deborah Goldberg received her B.A. from Barnard College in 1975 and her Ph.D. from the University of Arizona in 1980 and served on the faculty at the University of Michigan from 1983 to 2019. Her graduate work at the University of Arizona included studies in the tropical deciduous forest in the Sierra Madre Occidental in Sonora, Mexico, and in the long-term permanent vegetation plots on Tumamoc Hill. She is now an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Arizona, as well as the Arthur F. Thurnau Professor Emerita and the Margaret B. Davis Distinguished University Professor Emerita of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Michigan.

Goldberg’s research focuses on the processes that underlie patterns in plant community dynamics, structure, and function and their response to global change drivers, including climate change, nutrient deposition, and invasive species. Her work uses experiments in the field, mesocosms, and greenhouse; field surveys at scales from centimeters to kilometers; and modeling to integrate results across approaches and scales in ecosystems from deserts to wetlands. At the University of Michigan, she served as chair of the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology between 2003 and 2013.

Professor Goldberg has worked actively as a faculty member, and department chair to increase recruitment and retention and improve the climate for under-represented groups and has received multiple awards for her diversity and inclusion work at the University of Michigan. Other honors include election as Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Fellow of the Ecological Society of America, and Vice President for Science for the Ecological Society of America.