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Fields of study
Ecology and paleoecology of mammals, evolution of Cenozoic mammals, biogeography, sustainable agriculture
Academic background
Catherine Badgley studied geology as an undergraduate at Radcliffe College (Harvard University). She then obtained a master’s degree from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, followed by a Ph.D. from the Biology Department at Yale. She came to the University of Michigan in 1982 as a Michigan Fellow with the Michigan Society of Fellows. She has been a research scientist in the Museum of Paleontology since 1985 and a lecturer in the Residential College since 1987. She has conducted paleontological field work in Pakistan, China, Kenya and the western United States. Her research also includes studies of modern mammal biogeography. A long-standing interest in the modern biodiversity crisis led her to study the impacts of agriculture on biodiversity and then to evaluate alternative scenarios to the current food system. She is currently the president of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology, an international scientific organization.
Graduate students
Museum of Paleontology home page
News
Organic agriculture can feed the world and help environment
Organic farming can yield up to three times as much food as low-intensive farming on the same amount of land in developing countries.
The study was conducted by a research team headed by Professor Catherine Badgley, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, and Professor Ivette Perfecto, School of Natural Resources and Environment. The team's results refute the long-standing assumption that organic farming methods cannot produce enough food to feed the global population.
Co-authors and researchers include several current and former U-M graduate and undergraduate students, including Michael Jahi Chappell, EEB Ph.D. candidate.
The study was published in Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems, July 2007, Issue 2.
U-M News Service press release
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