our mission

We are ecologists based at the University of Colorado Boulder. We apply cutting-edge science to the challenges of restoration, invasion, and environmental change.

We embrace variability as well as average values; process and pattern as well as structure; feedbacks that lead to rapid change as well as those that lead to resilience; and creative as well as conservative management actions.

We are committed to sharing our science, passion, and curiosity in the natural world. We work on issues critical to communities in Boulder, across Colorado, and globally.

Katharine Suding

Katie is a Distinguished Professor of Ecology at University of Colorado Boulder. She is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and a highly-cited author who has written extensively in the areas of ecosystem dynamics and management, ecological restoration, biodiversity, and conservation. Her current research focuses on managing ecosystems in a rapidly changing world. In 2018, she received the Robert H. MacArthur Award from the Ecological Society of America, a biennial prize given by the Ecological Society of America to an ecologist for their pivotal contributions to the field. She was selected by the British Ecological society as the Eminent Ecologist in 2023, and received the Bower Award from the Franklin Institute for achievement in science in 2025.

our impact

2.

Our work is widely used and cited, recognized as among the top 1% in citations in ecology and environmental science by ISI Web of Science.

3.

Alumni of the Suding lab have gone on to be pivotal leaders in academia, federal agencies, and non-profit organizations.

4.

We have strong collaborative relationships with groups leading conservation and restoration efforts at the local, national and international level.