Georgina Mace

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British ecologist (1953–2020)

title: "Georgina Mace" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1953-births", "2020-deaths", "british-conservationists", "british-ecologists", "british-women-ecologists", "dames-commander-of-the-order-of-the-british-empire", "female-fellows-of-the-royal-society", "people-educated-at-the-city-of-london-school-for-girls", "alumni-of-the-university-of-sussex", "fellows-of-the-royal-society", "linnean-medallists", "winners-of-the-heineken-prize", "presidents-of-the-british-ecological-society"] description: "British ecologist (1953–2020)" topic_path: "philosophy" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgina_Mace" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary British ecologist (1953–2020) ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox scientist"]

FieldValue
nameDame Georgina Mace
honorific_suffix
imageGeorgina Mace 2019.jpg
captionMace in 2019
birth_date
birth_placeLondon, England
birth_nameGeorgina Mary Mace
death_date
fieldsConservation Biology
thesis_urlhttp://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.464062
thesis_titleThe evolutionary ecology of small mammals
thesis_year1979
workplaces{{Plainlist
educationCity of London School for Girls
doctoral_advisorPaul H. Harvey
alma_mater{{Plainlist
known_forDeveloping the criteria for listing species in the IUCN Red List
awards{{Plainlist
spouseRoderick O. Evans
children3
::

|name = Dame Georgina Mace |honorific_suffix = |image = Georgina Mace 2019.jpg |caption = Mace in 2019 |birth_date = |birth_place = London, England | birth_name = Georgina Mary Mace | death_date = |nationality = |fields = Conservation Biology | thesis_url = http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.464062 | thesis_title = The evolutionary ecology of small mammals | thesis_year = 1979 |workplaces = {{Plainlist|

Dame Georgina Mary Mace, (12 July 1953 – 19 September 2020) was a British ecologist and conservation scientist. She was Professor of Biodiversity and Ecosystems at University College London, and previously Professor of Conservation Science and Director of the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) Centre for Population Biology, Imperial College London (2006–2012) and Director of Science at the Zoological Society of London (2000–2006).

Education

Georgina Mace was born in Lewisham borough of London. Her father was Dr. Bill Mace, a rheumatologist, and her mother was Josephine Mace, a nurse. and educated at the City of London School for Girls before studying at the University of Liverpool where she was awarded a Bachelor of Science degree in 1976. for research supervised by Paul H. Harvey.

Research and career

Her research interests mainly involved measuring the trends and consequences of biodiversity loss and ecosystem change. She started her career at the Smithsonian Institution to study the impact of inbreeding in zoological collections. Mace continued this work and further researched captive population ecology by studying population viability in zoos. Mace commented that "It was exciting to make quantitative scientific contributions to conservation"

She was President of the British Ecological Society, President of the Society for Conservation Biology, a member of the Science Committee of Diversitas. Mace was editor of the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society (Series B, Biological Sciences) from 2008 to 2010.

In 2000, Mace became Director of Science at the Institute of Zoology in London, during which time she was instrumental in developing the criteria for listing species in the IUCN Red List, the most comprehensive inventory on the conservation status of the world's species conservation contributing to the maintenance of global biodiversity and managed by IUCN. Prior to these changes, the Red List was based on nominations from experts rather than data, the changes instigated by Mace and her colleagues took 10 years to be implemented by the IUCN. Many Regional Red List publications are now increasingly based on the same criteria, which account for climate change and other environmental factors in determining extinction threats. Since 2002 she and her colleagues have worked to establish methods for evaluating biodiversity and the ecosystem services it provides, and changes in biodiversity that have been provisionally measured by the Red List Index.

Mace was also actively involved in the biodiversity sections of the "Millennium Ecosystem Assessment" which was conducted from 2002 through 2005. Mace stated that "all the evidence to date is that when societies put their mind to solving a problem, they can generally do it."

In 2006, Mace became director of the Imperial College Natural Environment Research Council's Centre for Population Biology at Silwood Park. After 2012 Mace acted as Director of the Centre for Biodiversity and Environment Research (CBER) at University College London. She was also an Academic Editor of PLOS Biology, the open access online journal and supported open-access policy to scientific publications.

In 2018, Mace was appointed as a member of the Adaptation Committee of the Committee on Climate Change, advising the UK and devolved governments on progress made in preparing for and adapting to the impacts of climate change.

Honours and awards

Mace was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1998, Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 2007 for services to environmental science, and Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in the 2016 New Year Honours for services to science.

Mace was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 2002. followed by another Doctorate Honoris Causa, from the University of Lausanne, Switzerland, in 2018. She was the winner of the 2007 International Cosmos Prize. In 2011 she received the Ernst Haeckel Prize by the European Ecological Federation. In 2016 Mace won the Dr A.H. Heineken Prize for Environmental Sciences. In 2016 she was also awarded, jointly with Sandra Knapp, the Linnean Medal of the Linnean Society

She received a President's Medal from the British Ecological Society, and the 2018 BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in the category of Ecology and Conservation Biology, jointly with Gretchen Daily, for developing vital tools facilitating science-based policies "to combat species loss".

The extinct rice rat Megalomys georginae from Barbados was named after her.

References

References

  1. Anon. (2017). "Mace, Prof. Georgina Mary".
  2. Anon. (2002). "Dame Georgina Mace DBE FRS }} One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from the royalsociety.org website where: {{quote". [[Royal Society]].
  3. (21 September 2020). "CCC deeply saddened by death of Georgina Mace". [[Committee on Climate Change]].
  4. "Iris View Profile". University College London.
  5. (2006). "Georgina Mace, director, Centre for Population Biology, Imperial College London, UK". [[Nature (journal).
  6. Jim Al-Khalili. (2016). "Georgina Mace interviewed on The Life Scientific". BBC.
  7. {{cite q. Q100636224
  8. "Profiles of British Ecological Society Members".
  9. Mace, Georgina. (2008). "Editorial". [[Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B]].
  10. Mace, Georgina M.. (2010). "Comments from the departing Editor". [[Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B]].
  11. Schwartz, John. (2020-12-01). "Georgina Mace, Who Shaped List of Endangered Species, Dies at 67". The New York Times.
  12. "Biodiversity".
  13. (December 2023). "Centre for Biodiversity and Environment Research}}{{Dead link".
  14. IUCN. "Interview with G Mace". IUCN.
  15. "Conservation Scholars". Conservation Bytes.
  16. {{London Gazette. (30 December 2015)
  17. (30 December 2015). "New Year's Honours 2016 list".
  18. (27 July 2007). "Honorary degrees for eminent quartet".
  19. "Doctorats Honoris Causa et prix de l'Université de Lausanne 2018".
  20. "The Prizewinner 2007". Expo'90 Foundation.
  21. Rösner, S.. (9 December 2017). "Prizes & Awards".
  22. "Heineken Prizes – Georgina Mace". Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences.
  23. "The Linnean Medal". the Linnean Society.
  24. "Winners of our President's Medal".
  25. (2012). "A new species of recently extinct rice rat (''Megalomys'') from Barbados". Mammalian Biology.

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