Taylor Ricketts

Taylor Ricketts is Gund Professor at the Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources and Director the Gund Institute for Environment at the University of Vermont. He is a co-founder of the Natural Capital Alliance. Taylor’s work centers on the overarching question: How do we meet the needs of people and nature in an increasingly crowded, changing world? His research focuses on the economic and health benefits provided to people by forests, wetlands, reefs, and other natural areas. His teaching draws from this research activity, including courses on Ecosystem Services and Landscape Ecology.

Taylor has served as an author and editor for several UN-led efforts to assess global ecosystems and their contributions to human wellbeing, IPBES Thematic Assessment Report on the Interlinkages among Biodiversity, Water, Food and Health (IPBES Nexus Report 2024). Before arriving at the University of Vermont in 2011, he led World Wildlife Fund’s Conservation Science Program for nine years. These and other roles are part of a continuing effort to link rigorous research with practical conservation and policy efforts worldwide. Taylor is an elected Fellow of both the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the Ecological Society of America. He received a Ph.D. in biological sciences from Stanford University and a B.A. from Dartmouth College.