Patrick Baker is a Professor of Silviculture and Forest Ecology in the School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences at the University of Melbourne. He has a BA from Bowdoin College (1989), a Masters of Forestry from Yale University (1993), and a PhD in Forest Ecology and Management from the University of Washington (2001).

His PhD research focused on understanding the historical stand dynamics of a seasonal tropical forest in western Thailand. He worked as a post-doctoral research fellow for the US Forest Service and The Nature Conservance of Hawaii from 2001-2004 studying the silviculture of Acacia koa. From 2004 to 2012 Baker was a Lecturer (2004-08) and Senior Lecturer (2008-12) in the School of Biological Sciences at Monash University. He moved to the University of Melbourne in late 2012 as an Australian Research Council Future Fellow.