Stephen Polasky is a Regents Professor and the Fesler-Lampert Professor of Ecological/Environmental Economics at the University of Minnesota where he has a joint appointment in the Department of Applied Economics and the Department of Ecology, Evolution & Behavior. Stephen is also a fellow of the University’s Institute on the Environment.

Stephen's research interests focus on issues at the intersection of ecology and economics and include the impacts of land use and land management on the provision and value of ecosystem services and natural capital, biodiversity conservation, sustainability, environmental regulation, renewable energy, and common property resources.

Stephen is a co-founder of the Natural Capital Project, a partnership between Minnesota, Stanford, The Nature Conservancy, and World Wildlife Fund. Stephen served as Senior Staff Economist for environment and resources for the President’s Council of Economic Advisers 1998-1999. Stephen currently serves on the Board of Directors and the Science Council for The Nature Conservancy, the Sustainability External Advisory Committee for Dow Chemical, and the Science Advisory Board of NOAA.

Stephen was elected into the National Academy of Sciences in 2010 and is a fellow of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.