Michael Donoghue

Michael Donoghue joined Yale in 2000 as the G. Evelyn Hutchinson Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. He served as Chair of the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Department in 2001-02, and as the Director of the Peabody Museum of Natural History from 2003-08. From 2008-10 he served as Yale’s inaugural Vice President for West Campus Planning and Program Development, and in 2011 he was named Sterling Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. He served as Director of Yale’s Marsh Botanical Garden from 2015-2018. He currently serves as the Curator of Botany, the Curator of Paleobotany, and the Curator of Informatics in the Peabody Museum, and as Director of the Yale Institute for Biospheric Studies (YIBS).

Donoghue earned his undergraduate degree from Michigan State University (1976) and his Ph.D. in Biology from Harvard University (1982). He served on the faculty of San Diego State University (1982-85), the University of Arizona (1985-92), and Harvard University (1992-00), where he was the Director of the Harvard University Herbaria from 1995-99. He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (1997), a Member of the National Academy of Sciences (2005), and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2008). His research concerns the diversity and evolutionary history of plants, and connections between phylogeny, biogeography, and ecology.  He has been active in movements to reconstruct the Tree of Life and to link evolution to biodiversity conservation. He has published over 290 scientific papers and has mentored over 50 postdoctoral associates and graduate students.