Dr. ​​​Stuart Davies is Director of the Center for Tropical Forest Science-Forest Global Earth Observatory at the Smithsonian Institution. He holds the Frank Levinson Chair in Global Forest Science and is a Senior Staff Scientist at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute.

His research investigates ecological and evolutionary influences on variation in rain forest communities across the tropics. He uses a range of demographic, community, biogeographic, and evolutionary studies to understand how environmental factors constrain species distributions and affect demographic and ecological processes. These studies are fundamental to understanding the origins of diversity in forests, and for developing a more predictive framework for understanding the impacts of changing land-use and global climatic changes on forests.

As Director of ForestGEO, Stuart sets the scientific direction of the network, including site coordination, raising funds, strengthening scientific capacity, and increasing scientific impact of ForestGEO on the global scientific community and the public.

Prior to becoming the Director of the ForestGEO, Stuart coordinated the Asia Program of CTFS, cosponsored by the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University. Before joining CTFS, he was a Senior Research Associate at the Center for International Development at Harvard University (2001-2003), Associate Professor at the Institute for Biodiversity and Environmental Conservation, University of Malaysia Sarawak (1997-2001), and a Predoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Brunei Darussalam (1993-1994). Stuart received his PhD. from Harvard University in 1996.

Stuart is based at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History (NMNH) in Washington, D.C., USA.