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Best Female Scientists
2025
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Ecology and Evolution
USA
2026

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Best Female Scientists

D-Index
119
Citations
88768
World Ranking
569
National Ranking
340

Ecology and Evolution

D-Index
122
Citations
93510
World Ranking
92
National Ranking
32

Research.com Recognitions

  • 2026 - Research.com Ecology and Evolution in United States Leader Award
  • 2025 - Research.com Best Female Scientists Award
  • 2025 - Research.com Ecology and Evolution in United States Leader Award
  • 2012 - Fellow of the Ecological Society of America (ESA)
  • 2010 - Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
  • 2009 - Fellow of American Geophysical Union (AGU)
  • 2007 - Fellow of the MacArthur Foundation
  • 2007 - Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
  • 2006 - Member of the National Academy of Sciences

Overview

Ruth S. DeFries is affiliated with Columbia University in the United States and focuses primarily on Environmental Science, with a body of work consisting of 106 publications in this field. Their research spans various subfields including Global and Planetary Change, Ecology, Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law, Ecological Modeling, and Economics and Econometrics.

The topics covered in their work include Conservation, Biodiversity, and Resource Management; Wildlife Ecology and Conservation; Land Use and Ecosystem Services; Species Distribution and Climate Change; Energy and Environment Impacts; Atmospheric Chemistry and Aerosols; and Climate Change Impacts on Agriculture.

Recent publications by Ruth S. DeFries include:

  • Ten facts about land systems for sustainability, 2022, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
  • Groundwater depletion will reduce cropping intensity in India, 2021, Science Advances
  • How Social Considerations Improve the Equity and Effectiveness of Ecosystem Restoration, 2022, BioScience
  • Prioritizing India's landscapes for biodiversity, ecosystem services and human well-being, 2023, Nature Sustainability
  • The association between crop and income diversity and farmer intra-household dietary diversity in India, 2020, Food Security

Frequent collaborators in their research include Meha Jain, Sukhwinder Singh, Tianjia Liu, Loretta J. Mickley, and Miriam E. Marlier.

Ruth S. DeFries has contributed to several publication venues multiple times, with prominent appearances in Harvard Dataverse, Environmental Research Letters, SSRN Electronic Journal, Biological Conservation, and Science Advances.

The scientist has been recognized with several fellowships and memberships, including:

  • Fellow of the Ecological Society of America (ESA), 2012
  • Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 2010
  • Fellow of American Geophysical Union (AGU), 2009
  • Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), 2007
  • Fellow of the MacArthur Foundation, 2007
  • Member of the National Academy of Sciences, 2006

Best Publications

  • Global Consequences of Land Use

    Jonathan A. Foley;Ruth DeFries;Gregory P. Asner;Carol Barford

  • Fire in the Earth System

    David M. J. S. Bowman;Jennifer K. Balch;Jennifer K. Balch;Jennifer K. Balch;Paulo Artaxo;William J. Bond

  • Carbon and Other Biogeochemical Cycles

    P. Ciais;C. Sabine;G. Bala;L. Bopp

  • Global fire emissions and the contribution of deforestation, savanna, forest, agricultural, and peat fires (1997-2009)

    G. R. van der Werf;J. T. Randerson;L. Giglio;L. Giglio;G. J. Collatz

  • Science for managing ecosystem services: Beyond the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment

    Stephen R. Carpenter;Harold A. Mooney;John Agard;Doris Capistrano

  • Global land cover classification at 1 km spatial resolution using a classification tree approach

    M. C. Hansen;R. S. Defries;J. R. G. Townshend;R. Sohlberg

  • The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS): land remote sensing for global change research

    C.O. Justice;E. Vermote;J.R.G. Townshend;R. Defries

  • A global overview of the conservation status of tropical dry forests

    Lera Miles;Adrian C. Newton;Ruth S DeFries;Corinna Ravilious

  • CO 2 emissions from forest loss

    G. R. van der Werf;D. C. Morton;R. S. DeFries;J. G. J. Olivier

  • Deforestation driven by urban population growth and agricultural trade in the twenty-first century

    Ruth S. DeFries;Thomas Rudel;Maria Uriarte;Matthew Hansen

  • NDVI-derived land cover classifications at a global scale

    R. S. Defries;J. R. G. Townshend

  • The Amazon basin in transition

    Eric A. Davidson;Alessandro C. de Araújo;Alessandro C. de Araújo;Paulo Artaxo;Jennifer K. Balch;Jennifer K. Balch

  • Carbon emissions from land use and land-cover change

    Richard A. Houghton;J.I. House;J. Pongratz;J. Pongratz;G. R. van der Werf

  • Cropland expansion changes deforestation dynamics in the southern Brazilian Amazon

    Douglas C. Morton;Ruth S. DeFries;Yosio E. Shimabukuro;Liana O. Anderson

  • The human dimension of fire regimes on Earth

    David M. J. S. Bowman;Jennifer Balch;Paulo Artaxo;William J. Bond

  • Land-use choices: balancing human needs and ecosystem function

    Ruth S. DeFries;Jonathan A. Foley;Gregory P. Asner;Gregory P. Asner

  • Global Percent Tree Cover at a Spatial Resolution of 500 Meters: First Results of the MODIS Vegetation Continuous Fields Algorithm

    M. C. Hansen;R. S. DeFries;J. R. G. Townshend;M. Carroll

  • A human-driven decline in global burned area

    N. Andela;N. Andela;D. C. Morton;L. Giglio;Y Chen

  • Framing Sustainability in a Telecoupled World

    Jianguo Liu;Vanessa Hull;Mateus Batistella;Ruth DeFries

  • Global distribution of C3 and C4 vegetation: Carbon cycle implications

    Christopher J. Still;Christopher J. Still;Joseph A. Berry;G. James Collatz;Ruth S. DeFries

  • Carbon emissions from tropical deforestation and regrowth based on satellite observations for the 1980s and 1990s.

    Ruth S. DeFries;Richard A. Houghton;Matthew C. Hansen;Christopher B. Field

Frequent Co-Authors

John R. Townshend
John R. Townshend University of Maryland, College Park
Douglas C. Morton
Douglas C. Morton Goddard Space Flight Center
Louis Giglio
Louis Giglio University of Maryland, College Park
James T. Randerson
James T. Randerson University of California, Irvine
Prasad S. Kasibhatla
Prasad S. Kasibhatla Duke University
Loretta J. Mickley
Loretta J. Mickley Harvard University
Krithi K. Karanth
Krithi K. Karanth Duke University
Eric F. Lambin
Eric F. Lambin Stanford University
María Uriarte
María Uriarte Columbia University
Gregory P. Asner
Gregory P. Asner Arizona State University

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