Cheryl Palm
{{Short description|American agricultural scientist (1954–2024)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=January 2024}}
{{Infobox scientist
| name = Cheryl Ann Palm
| image = Cheryl Palm CIFOR.jpg
| caption = Palm in 2014
| birth_date = {{birth date|1954|01|06}}
| birth_place = Marysville, California, U.S.
| death_date = {{death date and age|2024|01|24|1954|01|06}}
| death_place =
| workplaces = University of Florida
Columbia University
| alma_mater = University of California, Davis
North Carolina State University
| thesis_title = Mulch quality and nitrogen dynamics in an alley cropping system in the Peruvian Amazon
| thesis_url = https://worldcat.org/en/title/223186017
| thesis_year = 1988
}}
Cheryl Palm (January 6, 1954 – January 24, 2024) was an American agricultural scientist who was Professor of Agricultural and Biological Engineering at the University of Florida. Her research considers tropical land use and ecosystem function, including carbon and nutrient dynamics. She was the former Chair of the International Nitrogen Initiative and a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and American Society of Agronomists.
Early life and education
Palm studied zoology at the University of California, Davis. She spent her master's year investigating territories and mating in Vanessa annabella.{{Cite web |title=Territories, leks, and mating in vanessa annabella (lepidoptera: nymphalidae) {{!}} WorldCat.org |url=https://www.worldcat.org/title/983752606 |access-date=February 7, 2023 |website=www.worldcat.org |language=en}} She moved to North Carolina State University for doctoral research, where she studied nitrogen dynamics in cropping systems in the Peruvian Amazon.{{Cite web |title=Mulch quality and nitrogen dynamics in an alley cropping system in the Peruvian Amazon {{!}} WorldCat.org |url=https://www.worldcat.org/title/223186017 |access-date=February 7, 2023 |website=www.worldcat.org |language=en}} From 1991 to 2001, Palm served as principal research scientist of the Kenyan Tropical Soil Biology and Fertility Program.{{Citation |last1=Palm |first1=Cheryl A. |date=2001 |url=https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-2172-1_7 |work=Managing Organic Matter in Tropical Soils: Scope and Limitations: Proceedings of a Workshop organized by the Center for Development Research at the University of Bonn (ZEF Bonn) — Germany, 7–10 June, 1999 |pages=63–75 |editor-last=Martius |editor-first=C. |place=Dordrecht |publisher=Springer Netherlands |language=en |doi=10.1007/978-94-017-2172-1_7 |isbn=978-94-017-2172-1 |access-date=February 7, 2023 |last2=Giller |first2=Ken E. |last3=Mafongoya |first3=Paramu L. |last4=Swift |first4=M. J. |title=Management of organic matter in the tropics: Translating theory into practice |editor2-last=Tiessen |editor2-first=H. |editor3-last=Vlek |editor3-first=P. L. G.}}{{Cite journal |last1=WOOMER |first1=PAUL L. |last2=PALM |first2=CHERYL A. |date=1998 |title=An approach to estimating system carbon stocks in tropical forests and associated land uses |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/42608673 |journal=The Commonwealth Forestry Review |volume=77 |issue=3 |pages=181–190 |jstor=42608673 |issn=0010-3381}}
Research and career
Palm was Director of Research at the AgCenter and the Millennium Villages Project at Columbia University, where she investigated land use, degradation and ecosystem processes in tropical climates. She quantified carbon stocks, losses and greenhouse gas emissions following slash-and-burn in humid tropics (e.g. Indonesia, the Congo Basin and the Brazilian Amazon).{{Cite web |last=globalreach.com |first=Global Reach Internet Productions, LLC-Ames, IA- |title=World Food Prize Laureate Joins Faculty at University of Florida |url=https://www.worldfoodprize.org/index.cfm/87428/40308/world_food_prize_laureate_joins_faculty_at_university_of_florida |access-date=February 7, 2023 |website=www.worldfoodprize.org |language=en-us}} She explored the nutrient dynamics of soil in Africa, looking to identify new options for soil and land rehabilitation.{{Cite journal |last1=Palm |first1=Cheryl |last2=Sanchez |first2=Pedro |last3=Ahamed |first3=Sonya |last4=Awiti |first4=Alex |date=January 1, 2007 |title=Soils: A contemporary perspective |url=https://ecommons.aku.edu/eastafrica_eai/8 |journal=Annual Review of Environment and Resources |volume=32 |pages=99–129|doi=10.1146/annurev.energy.31.020105.100307 |doi-access=free }}{{Cite web |title=Speaker - Global Food Security 2017 |url=https://www.globalfoodsecurityconference.com/bio-Palm.asp |access-date=February 7, 2023 |website=www.globalfoodsecurityconference.com}} After receiving the World Food Prize in 2002, Palm established the Sanchez Tropical Agriculture Foundation, which provided financial aid to scientists and farmers looking to end hunger in low and middle income countries.{{Cite web |title=Free-agent professors: Signings |url=https://www.floridatrend.com/article/20515/free-agent-professors-signings |access-date=February 7, 2023 |website=Florida Trend}}{{Cite web |last=globalreach.com |first=Global Reach Internet Productions, LLC-Ames, IA- |title=2002: Sanchez - The World Food Prize - Improving the Quality, Quantity and Availability of Food in the World |url=https://www.worldfoodprize.org/en/laureates/20002009_laureates/2002_sanchez/ |access-date=February 7, 2023 |website=www.worldfoodprize.org |language=en-us}}
In 2016, Palm joined the faculty of the University of Florida. She has studied the tradeoffs and synergies between agricultural intensification strategies.{{Cite web |last=Communications |first=IFAS |title=Cheryl Palm - Global Food Systems Institute - University of Florida, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences - UF/IFAS |url=https://foodsystems.ifas.ufl.edu/people/faculty/cheryl-palm/ |access-date=February 7, 2023 |website=foodsystems.ifas.ufl.edu |language=en}} She delivered the British Society of Soil Science 2018 Russell Lecture.{{Citation |title=The 2018 Russell Lecture by Professor Cheryl Palm | date=October 11, 2018 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8oZRrRgrGNE |language=en |access-date=February 7, 2023}}
Palm was elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2022.{{Cite web |title=American Association for the Advancement of Science honors 19 UF faculty as Lifetime Fellows |url=https://news.ufl.edu/2023/01/aaas-fellows/ |access-date=February 7, 2023 |website=news.ufl.edu |language=en}}
Personal life and death
In 1990, Palm married Cuban soil scientist Pedro Sanchez. Palm died of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease on January 24, 2024, having been diagnosed with the disease less than four months prior. She was 70.{{cite web |title=Cheryl A. Palm obituary |url=https://www.capenews.net/falmouth/obituaries/cheryl-a-palm/article_da5d77ac-b918-51a3-ac64-b3bd9d693fbf.html |website=Cape News |access-date=2 February 2024 |date=2 February 2024}}
Selected publications
- {{Cite Q|Q58242302}}
- {{Cite Q|Q35696934}}
- {{Cite Q|Q46460438}}
References
{{reflist}}
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Category:American agriculturalists
Category:20th-century American scientists
Category:20th-century American women scientists
Category:21st-century American scientists
Category:21st-century American women scientists
Category:University of California, Davis alumni
Category:North Carolina State University alumni
Category:Columbia University faculty
Category:University of Florida faculty
Category:Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science