Joan Ehrenfeld

In 2012, the Ecological Society of America launched the Ehrenfeld Award to celebrate her contribution to urban ecology. In 2019, the New York–New Jersey Trail Conference established the Joan Ehrenfeld Award for Responsible Stewardship.

Ehrenfeld had four children. Her husband, David Ehrenfeld, was a professor of biology at Rutgers University. In 2010, she was diagnosed with leukemia. She was an examiner for Swarthmore College. She was a member of the Jewish community, and dedicated her weekends to music and the choir. Ehrenfeld died on June 25, 2011.

In 1976, Ehrenfeld was appointed to the faculty in the Center for Coastal and Environmental at Rutgers University. She was made Director of the New Jersey Water Resources Research Institute in 1990. Ehrenfeld worked on wetlands ecology and was particularly interested in the relationships between biodiversity and human disease. She extensively studied the spread of the West Nile virus.

Ehrenfeld was born in New York City. Her mother was a violinist, but encouraged Ehrenfeld to have a career in the sciences. Ehrenfeld said she remembered reading Paul de Kruif's Microbe Hunters as a child. As a teenager, the National Science Foundation selected her for a summer placement in the laboratory of Donald Ritchie at Barnard College. She returned to Barnard College for undergraduate studies, where she specialized in biology. She also completed a summer program at Colorado State University, and spent time working in a molecular biology lab. Ehrenfeld moved to Harvard University, where she earned a master's degree in 1970. She was a doctoral researcher at the City University of New York, where she studied the ecological interactions of Euphorbia.

Joan Gardner Ehrenfeld (1948 – 2011) was an American environmental scientist who was a professor at Rutgers University. Her research considered invasive species and ecology. She was elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2000.