Jessica Gurevitch is plant ecologist known for

meta-analysis A meta-analysis is a statistical analysis that combines the results of multiple scientific studies. Meta-analyses can be performed when there are multiple scientific studies addressing the same question, with each individual study reporting me ...

in the fields of ecology and evolution.

Education and career

Gurevitch has a B.S. from Cornell University (1973) and earned her Ph.D. in ecology and evolutionary biology from the University of Arizona in 1982. She was a postdoctoral fellow for two years at the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...

before moving to the

State University of New York at Stony Brook Stony Brook University (SBU), officially the State University of New York at Stony Brook, is a public research university in Stony Brook, New York. Along with the University at Buffalo, it is one of the State University of New York system's ...

in 1985. For two years starting in 1992, Guervitch worked at the

National Science Foundation The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent agency of the United States government that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National I ...

before returning to Stony Brook where she was promoted to professor in 2000. From 2015 to 2016, Gurevitch was president of the

Society for Research Synthesis Methodology The Society for Research Synthesis Methodology (abbreviated SRSM) is an international, interdisciplinary learned society dedicated to promoting and fostering the study of research synthesis: the process whereby the results of multiple scientific s ...

Research

Gurevitch's research interests are centered on biological invasions and meta-analysis in ecology. Her research on grasses perennial plants, and trees relied on a combination of experimental manipulations and observation data. Her interest in biological invasions includes investigations into the invasive flowering plant ''

Centaurea stoebe ''Centaurea stoebe'', the spotted knapweed or panicled knapweed, is a species of ''Centaurea'' native to eastern Europe, although it has spread to North America, where it is considered an invasive species. It forms a tumbleweed, helping to incre ...

'' which is expanding its geographic range in the eastern United States. Gurevitch's research on the recovery of pine barrens after a large 1995 fire in Long Island led to a discussion on the conditions needed to optimize controlled burns to improve the recovery of plants after a fire. In the field of geoengineering, Gurevitch considers the ecological consequences of rapid geoengineering projects as a threat to biodiversity. Gurevitch also considered how habitats in marine and terrestrial biomes could be altered by

Stratospheric aerosol injection Stratospheric aerosol injection is a proposed method of solar geoengineering (or solar radiation modification) to reduce global warming. This would introduce aerosols into the stratosphere to create a cooling effect via global dimming and increa ...

which was covered by the popular press when the paper was published in 2021. Gurevitch first became interested in

, the combination of data from multiple studies, while reading a 1989 story in the Boston Globe that described a project that gathered multiple studies to reveal that boys and girls were equally good in math. She was the first to apply meta-analysis to ecological data in her 1992 paper that used meta-analysis to study competition in field experiments. Gurevitch has subsequently applied meta-analysis to a range of topics including soil ecosystems and their response to warming, interactions between competition and predation, and biological invasions. In a 2018 paper, she reviewed advances made in the field since it first became relevant to medical and social science research in the 1970s. Beyond conducting meta-analysis projects, Gurevitch develops statistical tools and software needed to conduct meta-analysis projects on ecological data, and co-edited a handook for ecologists and evolutionary biologists using meta-analysis in their research.

Selected publications

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Awards and honors

* Fellow,

American Association for the Advancement of Science The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is an American international non-profit organization with the stated goals of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific respons ...

(2010) * Fellow,

Ecological Society of America The Ecological Society of America (ESA) is a professional organization of ecological scientists. Based in the United States and founded in 1915, ESA publications include peer-reviewed journals, newsletters, fact sheets, and teaching resources. I ...

(2013) * Fellow, Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Studies (2014) * President,

(2015–2016)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Gurevitch, Jessica Fellows of the Ecological Society of America Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science University of Arizona alumni Cornell University alumni Stony Brook University faculty Women ecologists American statisticians 21st-century American botanists Living people Year of birth missing (living people) American ecologists