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Thomas Crowther

Professor, Environmental Science and Engineering

Biological and Environmental Science and Engineering Division

When healthy biodiversity is the preferred option for local land stewards across the globe, that is when it can recover with incredible momentum .

Program Affiliations

Biography

Thomas Ward Crowther is a British ecologist, focused on understanding the forces that shape biodiversity at a global scale. He is the founder of the Crowther Lab, an international network of research groups across five countries exploring the role of biodiversity in regulating the Earth's climate and human wellbeing. In 2022 he founded Restor.eco, an online platform that supports hundreds of thousands of community-led restoration projects around the world. By democratizing access to data and financing, this platform facilitates local biodiversity protection initiatives to enhance the wellbeing of local people. Collectively, this global network of projects is supporting the recovery of healthy soils and vegetation across 160 million hectares of land. He was the founding co-chair of the Advisory Board for the United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, which aims to facilitate ecological recovery at a global scale, and in 2021, the World Economic Forum named him a Young Global Leader for his efforts to protect biodiversity across the globe.

Research Interests

Crowther's research explores how biodiversity influences the Earth’s climate system and the wellbeing of local people who depend on it. He is particularly interested in the global distribution and functioning of plants and soil organisms (including fungi and nematodes), and how their interactions regulate global biogeochemistry. His work bridges fundamental ecology with global‐scale modeling to generate an understanding of the forces shaping biodiversity across the globe. He also focuses on how this ecological knowledge can be applied to enhance the success of conservation and restoration efforts by improving the livelihoods of local communities. 

Keyword tag icon
restoration forests carbon microbes ecosystems

Education Profile

  • B.S. Zoology (1st Class Honors), Cardiff University (U.K.), 2007 

  • Ph.D. Ecology, Cardiff University (U.K.), 2012

Awards and Recognitions

  • Rachel Carson Environmental Conservation Excellence Award, Applied microbiology International, 2025 

  • Dandelion Entrepreneurship Award Winner, ETH Zürich, 2021 

  • Finalist (for Restor.eco), Prince William’s Earthshot prize, 2021 

  • Young Global Leader Award, World Economic Forum, 2019 

  • Founders’ Prize Award, British Ecological Society, 2019 

  • Early Career Award, ESA Soil Ecology Society, 2017

Publications

Multimedia