2015 Metcalf Award Recipient: Pamela Templer

Pamela Templer is Associate Professor of Biology in the College of Arts & Sciences. Through her lectures and scholarly research, she bridges multiple disciplines to explore the impact of human activity on terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems.

For nearly a decade, Professor Templer has inspired a new generation of aspiring ecologists by placing students squarely at the center of the science they’re studying and, in turn, sparking a lasting fascination with the natural world and their ability to shape it. A champion of participatory learning, Professor Templer weds spirited discussion with roll-up-your-sleeves fieldwork to transport classes to the ocean’s depths or the forest floor and answer fundamental questions about our environment and its future.

Professor Templer’s colleagues praise a positive and steadfast approach that encourages students to speak freely and press forward to tackle often-challenging material. Her nominator attributes her success to “her contagious enthusiasm for science, her ability to establish a classroom environment that… fosters a free exchange of ideas, and her genuine commitment to addressing the needs of individual students.” One student puts it succinctly: “How can you not like Professor Templer?”

Those taking Professor Templer’s Biology of Global Change or Forest Ecology courses can expect to get their hands dirty. Whether sampling trees and soils from Harvard Forest, examining water and insects from the Charles River, or collecting air samples from BU rooftops, students gain a firsthand understanding of their subject matter, with many emerging, themselves, as critical thinkers and skilled communicators in climate science and collaborating to publish articles in top journals.

Professor Templer earned her Bachelor of Arts in Environmental Studies and Biology from the University of California, Santa Cruz, and her doctorate in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from Cornell University. The director of BU’s doctoral Biogeosciences Program, she has received numerous awards for her research, including a National Science Foundation CAREER Grant.