Margaret Holben Ellis received her Bachelor’s Degree in Art History from Barnard College, Columbia University (1975) and completed her Master’s Degree in Art History and Advanced Certificate in Conservation at the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University (1979). In 1977 she joined the Paper Conservation staff at the Metropolitan Museum of Art where she remained full-time until 1987 when she was appointed Sherman Fairchild Chairman of the Conservation Center, Institute of Fine Arts, New York University. Today she serves there as the Eugene Thaw Professor of Paper Conservation and teaches the conservation treatment of prints and drawings, as well as technical connoisseurship for art historians. In 1998, she was invited to plan the facilities and programs of the Thaw Conservation Center at the Morgan Library & Museum. She is currently the Center’s first Director. She is a Fellow and current Vice-President of the American Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works (AIC), a Fellow and past Council member of the International Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works (IIC), a current Board member of Heritage Preservation (HP) and an Accredited Conservator/Restorer of the Institute of Conservation (ICON). Awards include the AIC Rutherford John Gettens Merit Award, 1997, the AIC Sheldon and Caroline Keck Award, 2003, and, from the American Academy in Rome, the first Rome Prize (1994) to be awarded to a conservator. She has published and lectured on artists ranging from Raphael and Titian to Pollock and Lichtenstein with her research on artists’ materials similarly far-ranging.