Maureen Stanton, vice provost for academic affairs and professor of evolution and ecology at the University of California, Davis, has been elected to the prestigious American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Stanton's research focuses on how plant and animal populations adapt to environmental change, whether caused by natural processes or human activities, knowledge that is critical for predicting the long-term consequences of climate change, biological invasions and other alterations of global ecosystems. She has conducted fieldwork in both the U.S. and Kenya.

Stanton earned her bachelor's degree in biological sciences from Stanford University and her Ph.D. from Harvard before joining the UC Davis faculty in 1982 as an assistant professor in the Department of Botany. She served as the director of the UC Davis Center of Population Biology from 1993 to 1998 and chaired the Department of Evolution and Ecology from 2005 to 2011. Stanton took up the position as vice provost for Academic Affairs, overseeing the recruitment and appointment of Academic Senate faculty and Academic Federation members, in January 2012.

The American Academy of Arts and Sciences, founded in 1790, is an independent policy center whose membership includes scientists, scholars, artists, actors, policy makers and accomplished people from all walks of life. Among the 230 new members elected this year are Clint Eastwood, Paul McCartney, Jeffrey Bezos and Hillary Clinton.

Stanton becomes the 21st current or emeritus faculty member from UC Davis to be a member of the academy.