Aldo Leopold Leadership Fellowships provide scientists with intensive communications and leadership training to help them communicate scientific information effectively to non-scientific audiences, especially policy makers, the media, business leaders and the public. The Fellows are selected through a competitive application process. Fellows have outstanding scientific qualifications, demonstrated leadership ability and a strong interest in communicating science beyond traditional academic audiences.
The 2004 Fellows represent a broad range of environmental science disciplines, including environmental engineering, wildlife veterinary medicine, tropical forestry, marine ecology and environmental economics.
"We are absolutely thrilled with the 2004 cohort of Leopold Leadership Fellows," said Jane Lubchenco, Distinguished Professor of Zoology at Oregon State University who co-founded the Aldo Leopold Leadership Program and co-chairs the steering committee. "As individuals, each is outstanding in his or her field, and as a group, they provide a wonderful mix of disciplines and potential for new and interesting collaborations. They will learn a lot in the training sessions, but they also have a lot to offer each other and to the Leopold Leadership Program."
The 2004 Fellows join 60 other outstanding environmental scientists who previously received Leopold Leadership Fellowships and participated in the training, including Bill Schlesinger, Dean of the Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences at Duke University, Pamela Matson, Dean of the School of Earth Sciences at Stanford University and Jianguo (Jack) Liu, professor in the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife at Michigan State University. For a complete list of Fellows, including biographical information, visit the website: www.leopoldleadership.org
The scientists previously selected as Leopold Leadership Fellows report that the fellowship training program has greatly enhanced their ability to communicate their scientific work to journalists, policy makers and other non-scientists. Several have become regular sources of scientific information for reporters, and many have written op-ed articles published in local and national newspapers.
"Before (the fellowship training) I was attempting to translate science to the public, particularly environmental policy makers and regulators, but without many tools or even confidence," said Susan Williams, a 2000 Leopold Leadership Fellow who is professor of environmental science and policy and director of the Bodega Marine Laboratory at the University of California Davis. "The Leopold Program made me more effective and provided means to improve policy and media interactions, which have increased dramatically."
The Aldo Leopold Leadership Program was launched in 1998 with the goal of improving the flow of accurate, credible scientific information to policy makers, the media and the public by training outstanding academic environmental scientists to be better communicators of complex scientific information.
"Environmental scientists have valuable knowledge that should be available to citizens and policy makers as they make choices about the future of our planet and our communities. It is vitally important to all of us that scientists be able to provide accurate information in plain language and in the context of everyday life to those who are determining our environmental policies and practices," said Lubchenco.
The program is named for Aldo Leopold, a renowned environmental scientist who communicated his scientific knowledge simply and eloquently. His writings, including his 1949 book, A Sand County Almanac, are credited with infusing the emerging conservation movement with good science and a stewardship ethic.
Applications are now being accepted for the 2005 Leopold Leadership Fellowships. The deadline for applying is April 19, 2004.
For more information about the Aldo Leopold Leadership Program and the new Fellows, visit www.leopoldleadership.org.
The 2004 Aldo Leopold Leadership Fellows include:
Peter Alpert, Associate Professor
Department of Biology, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Robin Autenrieth, Professor
Department of Civil Engineering, Texas A&M University
Sharon Collinge, Associate Professor
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies Program, University of
Colorado, Boulder
Patricia Conrad, Professor
Department of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology
University of California, Davis
Lisa Curran, Associate Professor
Director, Tropical Resources Institute
Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies
Scott Doney, Associate Scientist
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
Adjunct faculty, Departments of Geology, Aerospace Engineering & Environmental Sciences
University of Colorado, Boulder
N. Thompson Hobbs, Senior Research Scientist
Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory
Colorado State University, Fort Collins
Bruce Hungate, Associate Professor
Department of Biological Sciences
Northern Arizona University
Jonathan Koomey, Visiting Professor
Joint appointment; Engineering and Earth Science
Stanford University
Beverly Law, Associate Professor
Department of Forest Science
Oregon State University, Corvallis
Thomas Litwin, Director
Clark Science Center, and
Adjunct Associate Professor
Department of Biological Sciences and Environmental Science & Policy
Smith College
David Maehr, Associate Professor
Department of Forestry
University of Kentucky, Lexington
John McCarty, Associate Professor
Department of Biology and Director, Environmental Studies Program
University of Nebraska, Omaha
Fiorenza Micheli, Assistant Professor
Biological Sciences, Hopkins Marine Station
Stanford University
Nalini Nadkarni, Member of the Faculty
Department of Environmental Studies
Evergreen State College, Olympia, Washington
Barry Noon, Professor Department of Fishery and Wildlife Biology Colorado State University, Fort Collins
N. LeRoy Poff, Associate Professor
Department of Biology
Colorado State University, Fort Collins
Thomas Princen, Associate Professor
Natural Resources and Environmental Policy, School of Natural Resources and the Environment
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
Robert Richmond,
Research Professor, Kewalo Marine Laboratory
Pacific Biomedical Research Center, University of Hawaii at Manoa
and Professor, Marine Laboratory
University of Guam, Mangilao
David Secord, Associate Professor
Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences; Environmental Science Coordinator, Environmental Sciences Program
University of Washington, Tacoma