Her career has led her to leadership of the Plant Paleobiology Research Group at Royal Holloway, University of London, UK. Her research interests are interdisciplinary and wide-ranging within plant Paleobotany as evidenced by her publications. They particularly include consideration of geochemical signatures of oxygen, biomolecules and other elements; the paleoclimate and floral assemblages; pollen and other tissues; and evolution in ancient plants. She has been president of the International Organization of Paleobotany, a Foreign Member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a corresponding Member of the Senckenberg Gesellschaft für Naturforschung. In 2015 she was awarded Distinguished Fellow of the Botanical Society of America.
Selected publications
She is the author or co-author of over 180 scientific publications. Among her most significant publications are:
Gordon N. Inglis, Margaret Collinson et al., . Earth and Planetary Science Letters. 460, 15 February 2017, 86-96
Helen M.Talbot, Juliane Bischoff, Gordon N. Inglis, Margaret E. Collinson, Richard D. Pancost Polyfunctionalised bio- and geohopanoids in the Eocene Cobham Lignite Organic Geochemistry 96, June 2016, 77-92
Howard J. Falcon-Lang, Viola Mages and Margaret Collinson The oldest Pinus and its preservation by fire Geology 44, 303–306.
Margret Steinthorsdottir, Amanda S. Porter, Aidan Holohan, Lutz Kunzmann, Margaret Collinson, and Jennifer C. McElwain ' Climate of the Past, 12, 439–454
Sarah A. E. Brown, Andrew C. Scott, Ian J. Glasspool and Margaret E. Collinson Cretaceous wildfires and their impact on the Earth system. Cretaceous Research 36 162-190
Stephen G. Compton, Alexander D. Ball, Margaret E. Collinson, Peta Hayes, Alexandr P. Rasnitsyn and Andrew J. Ross '. Biology Letters 6, 838–842.
P. L. Ascough, M. I. Bird, A. C. Scott, M. E. Collinson, I. Cohen-Ofri, C. E. Snape and K. Le Manquais ' Journal of Archaeological Science.37 1590-1599
Selena Y. Smith, Margaret E. Collinson, Paula J. Rudall, David A. Simpson, Federica Marone and Marco Stampanonid ' Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 106 12013-12018
Richard D. Pancost, David S. Steart, Luke Handley, Margaret E. Collinson et al., Increased terrestrial methane cycling at the Palaeocene-Eocene thermal maximum. Nature 449 332-
Neal S. Gupta, Briggs, Derek E. G. Briggs, Margaret E. Collinson et al., Evidence for the in situ polymerisation of labile aliphatic organic compounds during the preservation of fossil leaves: Implications for organic matter preservation. Organic Geochemistry, 38''', 499-522
