Davis, Margaret B.

Margaret B. Davis, A.B., Radcliffe College (1953); Ph.D., Harvard University (1957). Professor and head (1976-1981) of the department of ecology at the University of Minnesota. Authority in the field of paleoecology.

Margaret Bryan Davis was born on October 23, 1931 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She earned her B.A. from Radcliffe College in 1953, spent one year as a Fulbright Fellow at the Danish Geological Survey at the University of Copenhagen (1953-1954) and earned her Ph.D. in biology from Harvard University in 1957. Davis was a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard (1957-1958) and Cal Tech (1959-1960) and a research fellow at Yale University (1960-1961). Before joining the faculty at the University of Minnesota, Davis was an instructor at the University of Michigan (1961-1973) and Yale University (1973-1976). In 1976, she became professor and head of the Department of Ecology, Evolution and Behavior. She was appointed as a Regents' professor in 1983, the highest honor bestowed upon the faculty at the University of Minnesota. Margaret Davis retired as Regents' professor emeritus in 2000.

Her primary area of research in paleoecology is the study of pollen migration. Davis is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, American Society of Limnology and Oceanography, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, British Ecological Society and the International Association for Vegetation Science.