Donoghue named director of Yale Institute for Biospheric Studies

Michael J. Donoghue, Sterling Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, has been named director of the Yale Institute for Biospheric Studies (YIBS) for a three-year term beginning Jan. 1, announced Peter Schiffer, vice provost for research and professor in applied physics.

Donoghue, who also has held faculty appointments in Yale’s Department of Geology and Geophysics and in the School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, joined Yale in 2000 as the G. Evelyn Hutchinson Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. He served as chair of the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology in 2001-2002 and as director of the Peabody Museum of Natural History from 2003 to 2008. Currently, he serves as curator of the Botany, Paleobotany, and Informatics Divisions of the Peabody Museum.

He was the first vice president for West Campus planning and program development from 2008 to 2010. He was elected to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences in 2005 and as a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2008.

“I am grateful to Professor Os Schmitz, the departing director of YIBS, for his leadership and service in this role,” said Schiffer. “Os will take on the position of senior associate dean of research in the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies starting Jan. 1.”

YIBS is the umbrella environmental science center on campus, supporting and inspiring the environmental community at Yale through research and training, grants and fellowships, and weekly seminars and events. The institute uses a collaborative and cross-disciplinary approach to study the entire biosphere: from molecules to landscapes, and everything in between.