Biography

Dr. Gary E. Machlis is University Professor of Environmental Sustainability at Clemson University. Prior to joining the faculty at Clemson, he served as Science Advisor to the Director, U.S. National Park Service (NPS) during both terms of the Obama administration. Machlis teaches and writes about issues in social ecology, conservation and sustainability, science integrity, and the politics of science.

Machlis received his bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of Washington, and his Ph.D. in human ecology from Yale University. He has published scientific articles in journals as varied as Society and Natural Resources, Biological Conservation, Climatic Change, BioScience, Conservation Biology, Science, and Science Advances. He is the author of numerous books, most recently Sustainability for the Forgotten, published by the University of Utah Press in 2024. He is also the Poetry Editor for the conservation journal Parks Stewardship Forum.

Machlis has conducted research in over 75 US National Parks and served as Visiting Chief Social Scientist of the US National Park Service from 1995-2002. He has been active in international conservation and has worked in China on the Giant Panda Project for the World Wildlife Fund, the Galápagos Islands, and the national parks of Kenya, Cuba, and Eastern Europe.

At the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, he serves on the Sustainability Science and Technology Roundtable, and in 2022 was appointed to the National Academies Board on Environmental Change and Society. He also serves on the Academies' Advisory Board for its Scientists and Engineers in Exile or Displaced Program, working to assist and support scientists in exile around the world. In 2010, Machlis was elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He lives in Central, South Carolina.