Life Matters: The Stony Brook World Environmental Forum

People

As the former Director of Kenya’s National Museums and former Director of the Kenya Wildlife Service, Dr. Richard Leakey has used his leadership skills and considerable influence to raise money for the preservation of Kenyan culture and wildlife. Now a Visiting Professor at Stony Brook University, Dr. Leakey, as one of the foremost authorities on wildlife and nature conservation, continues to educate others about the dangers of environmental degradation through his many lectures and books. For more information visit the Leakey Foundation.

Charolotte Boyd Charlotte Boyd is Senior Advisor on Biodiversity Conservation Corridors for the Center for Applied Biodiversity Science (CABS) at Conservation International (CI). Her current research is focused on developing the conceptual and theoretical underpinnings and practical guidance necessary to support the identification of conservation targets for globally threatened species and critical ecological processes that require urgent conservation action at the landscape/ seascape scale. As part of this effort, she is working with Lee Hannah to develop guidance on designing broad-scale conservation plans that are robust to climate change.

Peter Bridgewater is Secretary General of the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands. Among many prominent positions, Dr. Bridgewater has served as Chief Scientist, UK Nature Conservancy Council (1989-1990); Chief Executive, Australian Nature Conservation Agency (1990-1999); Director, Division of Ecological Sciences, UNESCO, and Secretary, Man and the Biosphere Programme (2000-2003); Chairman, International Whaling Commission (1995-1997); and Commissioner, Independent World Commission on the Oceans (1995-98). He has published more than 170 publications on nature conservation, vegetation science and biodiversity issues.

Thure Cerling Thure E. Cerling is Distinguished Professor of Geology & Geophysics and Distinguished Professor of Biology at the University of Utah, and is a member of the National Academy of Sciences. His research centers on the geological record of ecological change, including the isotope physiology and diets of modern mammals, as well as the history of diets of different mammalian lineages. He uses stable isotopes to understand the evolution of Earth's ancient climate, atmosphere and ecosystems. He also serves on the U.S. Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board.

David Chapman David S. Chapman is Dean of the Graduate School and Professor of Geology & Geophysics at the University of Utah. Dr. Chapman is an internationally recognized scholar who studies thermal aspects of the Earth. He has published more than 100 scholarly articles in refereed journals, including Nature, Science, and Scientific American. A current focus of his geothermal research is to deduce the pattern of global warming over the past two centuries from detailed measurement of temperatures in drill holes.

Jim Clark James S. Clark is a Professor of Biology at Duke University, where his research focuses on how global change affects forests and grasslands. Clark has authored over 100 refereed scientific articles and edited the book Sediment Records of Biomass Burning and Global Change (Springer, 1997). Clark is recipient of ESA's William Skinner Cooper Award (1988), for his research on barrier beach dynamics, and George Mercer Award (1991), for studies of climate change and fire. For excellence in teaching and research, he was one of 15 scientists recognized by President Clinton with the National Science Foundation’s five-year Presidential Faculty Fellow Award (1994).

Robert Corell has been a Senior Policy Fellow with the Atmospheric Policy Program of the American Meteorological Society since January, 2000. He recently completed a four-year appointment as a Senior Research Fellow in the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs of the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. Corell was Assistant Director for Geosciences at the National Science Foundation, where he had oversight of the Atmospheric, Earth, and Ocean Sciences and the global change programs of the NSF. While at the NSF, he also served as the Chair of the committee of the National Science and Technology that has oversight of the U.S. Global Change Research Program.

Lisa Curran Lisa M. Curran is Director, Tropical Resources Institute, Yale University, and Associate Professor,Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies. Dr. Curran, an ecologist, studies the mechanisms that underlie community structure and dynamics of tropical forests and how ecological interactions are altered by human activities. She spent more than 20 years in the South and Southeast Asian tropics conducting research and holding a variety of positions for foundations and non-governmental conservation organizations, as well as the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization's Man and Biosphere Programme (UNESCO-MAB Indonesia).

Lee Hannah is Senior Fellow in Climate Change Research for the Center for Applied Biodiversity Science (CABS) at Conservation International (CI). He is currently heading CI's efforts to develop conservation responses to climate change and is co-leading a collaborative effort with the Nature Conservancy to help develop conservation strategies robust to climate change. His research interests include the role of climate change in conservation planning and methods of corridor design. He has written on the global extent of wilderness and the role of communities in protected area management.

Lee Hannah Lara Hansen is Chief Scientist for the World Wildlife Fund’s Climate Change Program. She studies the effects of anthropogenic change on marine and freshwater ecosystems and has testified before the U.S. Senate on climate change and its effect on biodiversity. Her current focus is on developing conservation strategies in response to climate change. She earned her Ph.D. in Ecology from the University of California.

Anthiny Janetos Anthony C. Janetos is Vice President of The Heinz Center for Science, Economics,and the Environment and Director of the Center’s Global Change program. He previously served as Vice President for Science and Research at the World Resources Institute and Senior Scientist for the Land-Cover and Land-Use Change Program in NASA’s Office of Earth Science. He was a co-chair of the U.S. National Assessment of the Potential Consequences of Climate Variability and Change and an author of the IPCC Special Report on Land-Use Change and Forestry and the Global Biodiversity Assessment.

Ian Johnson, a UK national, is Vice President for Sustainable Development (ESSD)at the World Bank, where he oversees the Bank's work on environmentally and socially sustainable development. In addition to this position, in July 2000, he was made Chairman of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), which is a strategic alliance of countries, international and regional organizations, and private foundations supporting 15 international agricultural centers that work with national agricultural research systems and civil society organizations including the private sector.

David Lavigne has been science advisor to the International Fund for Animal Welfare since 1999. Prior to that he was Executive Director of the International Marine Mammal Association, an international non-governmental organization concerned with the conservation of marine mammals worldwide. From 1973-1996 he was a professor in the Department of Zoology, University of Guelph. Today, his major interests are conservation biology, natural resources policy, and the pursuit of ecological sustainability.

Photo: Jane Leggett Jane Leggett is Senior Advisor in the Climate Change Division, US EPA. She develops new climate change indicators, leads probabilistic policy assessment, and represents the EPA in several inter-agency and international bodies. Previously, as Director of the Climate Policies and Programs Division in EPA’s policy office, she assisted development of US climate policies, and served as a lead negotiator for the US in the Kyoto Protocol negotiations. From 1984 to 1990, Ms. Leggett was an Administrator at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in Paris. Ms. Leggett holds a Master's in City and Regional Planning from Harvard University and a B.A. from Middlebury College.

Thomas E. Lovejoy is President of the H. John Heinz III Center for Science, Economics and the Environment. He directed the program of World Wildlife Fund-US from 1973 to 1987 and was responsible for its scientific, western hemisphere, and tropical forest orientation. From 1985 to 1987 he served as the Fund’s Executive Vice President. He is generally credited with having brought the tropical forest problem to the fore as a public issue. He was the first person to use the term biological diversity in 1980 and made the first projection of global extinction rates in the Global 2000 Report to the President that same year. He is the founder of the public television series Nature, and for many years served as principal advisor to the series.

Jane Lubchenco is an environmental scientist and marine ecologist who is actively engaged in teaching, research, synthesis, and communication of scientific knowledge. She is Valley Professor of Marine Biology and Distinguished Professor of Zoology at Oregon State University. She has received numerous awards including a MacArthur Fellowship, a Pew Fellowship, eight honorary degrees (including one from Princeton University), the 2002 Heinz Award in the Environment, and the Nierenberg Prize for Science in the Public Interest from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, 2003.

Adam Markham is Executive Director of Clean Air-Cool Planet. Previously he directed the World Wildlife Fund's international climate campaign. He spent 12 years with WWF, based in Switzerland and then the US, and in addition to his climate work helped design and manage campaigns on tropical forests and on toxic chemicals. Mr. Markham received his B.Sc. (hons.) from the University of Wales at Swansea, in the UK, where he studied zoology. He has written and edited several books including A Brief History of Pollution (St. Martins) and Potential Impacts of Climate Change on Tropical Forest Ecosystems (Kluwer).

Adam Markham Victoria Dompka Markham is founding director of the Center for Environment and Population (CEP). She has worked for 19 years on human population and environment science, policy, and outreach, including roles as Director of the AAAS International Directorate's Program on Population and SustainableDevelopment and Director of World Wildlife Fund International's Population Program. Among her publications are AAAS Atlas of Population & Environment, the CEP series of U.S. and State Reports on Population and the Environment, and Yale University's Bulletin Series: Human Populationand Freshwater Resources.

Jeffrey McNeely As Chief Scientist at IUCN - The World Conservation Union, Jeff McNeely has designed numerous programs, advised governments and conservation organizations, and produced over 300 technical and popular publications on conservation policy and practice. He was Secretary-General of the IV World Congress on National Parks and Protected Areas (Caracas, 1992). He spent 12 years in Asia (Thailand, Indonesia and Nepal) working on a wide range of conservation issues and designing a system of protected areas for the Mekong Basin. He serves on the editorial board of seven international journals.

Mario Molina Winner of the 1995 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for discovering the depletion of the ozone layer, Mario J. Molina is a world leader in developing our understanding of the chemistry of the stratospheric ozone layer. He is the Lee and Geraldine Martin Professor of Environmental Sciences in MIT's Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences. In 1994 Professor Molina was named by President Clinton to serve on the President's Committee of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST). Dr. Molina's current research includes work at the interface of the atmosphere-biosphere, which is critical to understanding global climate-change processes.

Mario Molina Staff Scientist Associated with Battelle Pacific Northwest National Laboratories (PNNL) since 1993, Richard Moss was previously Deputy Executive Director of the Human Dimensions of Global Environmental Change Programme (HDP) and Programme Officer of the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP) in Stockholm, Sweden, focusing on land use/cover change. Currently, he is on assignment as Director of the Office of the US Global Change Research Program, where he is leading preparation of a long-term strategic plan for the nation's 1.8 billion annual multi-agency research program.

Terry Root Terry L. Root is a Senior Fellow at the Center for Environmental Science and Policy in the Institute for International Studies, Stanford University. She was honored in 1990 with the prestigious Presidential Young Investigator Award from the National Science Foundation. In 1992 she was one of only 10 people around the world to be selected as a Pew Scholar in Conservation and the Environment, and in 1999 was one of 20 people to be named an Aldo Leopold Leadership Fellow. Dr. Root's work focuses on investigating factors shaping the ranges and abundances of animals, primarily birds.

Cynthia Rosenzweig is a Senior Research Scientist at the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, where she is the leader of the Climate Impacts Group. Dr. Rosenzweig is a Senior Research Scientist at the Columbia University Earth Institute and a Professor of Environmental Sciences at Barnard College. A recipient of a 2001 Guggenheim Fellowship, she focuses her research on the impacts of climate variability and change on systems and sectors at regional, national, and global scales. A Convening Lead Author for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s Fourth Assessment Report, Dr. Rosenzweig has led numerous national and international studies and published over 100 scientific articles and reports.

Osvaldo Sala Osvaldo E. Sala is the Director of the Center for Environmental Studies, Director of the Environmental Change Initiative, and Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Brown University. Dr. Sala's research is directed toward global change issues, with a focus on ecosystem-level questions including primary production, ecosystem-water dynamics, and most recently, biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. He has been a member of the scientific steering committee of International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme, the Global Change and Terrestrial Ecosystems, and DIVERSITAS. He has served since 2001 as the Secretary General of SCOPE, the Scientific Committee on Problems of the Environment.

Christian Samper As Director of the National Museum of Natural History, Cristian Samper oversees one of the world's largest collections and is host to six million vistors a year. A native of Costa Rica, he founded the Alexander von Humboldt Institute, a biodiversity research center in Colombia. Before coming to Washington, Dr. Samper spent two years leading the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute. He was recently awarded the Elcolombiano for his work for the environment. He played a key role in biodiversity conservation, pushing scientific research in Colombia’s conservation agenda.

Stephen Schneider Stephen H. Schneider is a professor in the Department of Biological Sciences of Stanford University and a Senior Fellow at the Institute for International Studies. A consultant to all administrations from Carter through Bush II, Schneider is interested in environmental education, for which he received the American Association for the Advancement of Sciences/Westinghouse Award for Public Understanding of Science and Technology (1991) and a MacArthur Prize Fellowship (1992). Schneider was elected to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences in April 2002. He received the National Conservation Achievement Award from the National Wildlife Federation and the Edward T. Law Roe Award of the Society of Conservation Biology in 2003.

Klaus Toepfer is United Nations Under-Secretary-General, Director-General of the United Nations Office at Nairobi (UNON), and Executive-Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). He is widely recognized as having spearheaded environmental policy as Minister of Environment in his home country Germany. He actively contributed to the success of the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 and was a forerunner in the negotiations for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the establishment of the Global Environment Facility (GEF).

Robert Watson Robert T. Watson is Director for Environment and Head of the Environment Sector Board at the World Bank. In addition, he has recently been elected Chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). In previous roles at the World Bank, in the White House, and at NASA, Dr. Watson has played a key role in the negotiation of global environment conventions and the evolution of the Global Environment Facility (GEF). Dr Watson has testified in the US Congress on numerous occasions regarding global environmental issues. He has received many national and international awards and prizes for his contributions to science.

Zhao Shidong is a Research Professor of Forest Ecology at the Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Vice-Chair of the Scientific Committee of the Chinese Ecosystem Research Network (CERN), Regional Vice-Chair of the Commission on Ecosystem Management of IUCN, and Chair of the East Asia and Pacific Regional Network of ILTER. His research is dedicated to the taxonomy and distribution of plants, the effects of human activities on ecosystem biodiversity, the impacts of climate change on ecosystems, land-use change, and the structure, function, dynamics, and management of forest ecosystems in China.