Stony Brook’s David Conover Among 20 Selected Nationwide
STONY BROOK, N.Y., March 28, 2005—The Aldo Leopold Leadership Program, now based at the Stanford Institute for the Environment, has announced its 2005 Leopold Leadership Fellows and appointed a new executive director. David Conover, Dean of the Marine Sciences Research Center at Stony Brook University, was among only 20 Fellows selected nationwide.
The Aldo Leopold Leadership Fellowships provide academic environmental 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. 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 2005 Fellows represent a broad range of environmental science disciplines, including forest ecology, sustainable agriculture, environmental engineering, environmental economics and oceanography. They join 80 other outstanding environmental scientists who previously received Leopold Leadership Fellowships, participated in the training and remain part of the Leopold Leadership Network. A list of the 20 new Fellows is included here. For a complete list of all Fellows, including biographical information, visit the website: www.leopoldleadership.org.
Conover is Professor and Dean of the Marine Sciences Research Center at Stony Brook and one of the world’s leading experts on the ecology of marine fishes and fisheries science. In 1997-98, he was named as the first recipient of the Mote Eminent Scholar Chair in Fisheries Ecology, a prestigious international award honoring those who have made major advances in the understanding of harvested marine resources. His most recent research, funded by the National Science Foundation and the New York Sea Grant Institute, involves determination of the long-term evolutionary (Darwinian) impacts of size-selective harvest regimes on the productivity of marine fish stocks. Much of his research involves species of great economic importance to New York such as bluefish, striped bass, and Atlantic silversides.
Conover lives in Stony Brook with his wife Margaret.
“The 2005 cohort of Leopold Leadership Fellows comprises a truly outstanding group of scientists working to address today’s most important environmental challenges,” said Jane Lubchenco, Distinguished Professor of Zoology at Oregon State University, who founded the Aldo Leopold Leadership Program and co-chairs the steering committee. “The training sessions will help them become more effective in their work individually, and the range and depth of their collective knowledge will make the Leopold Leadership Network even stronger.”
The fellowship program moved it operations to the Stanford Institute for the Environment in January and is led by faculty director Pamela Matson, Chester Naramore Dean of the Stanford School of Earth Sciences and a 2000 Leopold Leadership Fellow, and newly appointed executive director Debbie Drake Dunne. Dunne moved to the executive director position after serving as director of government relations at The Nature Conservancy of California.
“The Leopold Leadership Program is a unique and exciting program and we are proud to have it become part of the Stanford Institute for the Environment,” said Matson, who now co-chairs the Leopold Leadership Program Steering Committee with Lubchenco and Diana Wall, a 1999 Fellow and director of the Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory at Colorado State University.
The Stanford Institute for the Environment was established in 2004 to bring together faculty, staff, and students from across Stanford University to conduct research, education and outreach to promote an environmentally sound and sustainable world. Through its work at the intersection of science, technology and policy, as well as health, business and the humanities, the Institute fosters the development of creative solutions to environmental challenges; educates the next generation of leaders and problem solvers; and actively facilitates dialogue with key public and private leaders and the broader community.
The Aldo Leopold Leadership Program, with its emphasis on increasing effective interactions between scientists and policy makers, the media, business leaders and the public, will become a keystone program of the Institute.
About Debbie Drake Dunne’s appointment as executive director of the program, Matson said “With her broad experience bringing together policy makers, non-profit groups and scientists to address important environmental issues, she is the perfect person to lead the program into the future.”
Dunne’s background includes management positions with conservation organizations and government agencies focused on issues including water policy, land use, habitat conservation, endangered species and public lands acquisition and management.
“I have seen first hand the impact of science on public policy development and it is critical to have scientists involved who are able to communicate their technical knowledge in a way that decision makers can understand and use,” said Dunne. “I’m very committed to the mission of the Aldo Leopold Leadership Program and I look forward to being part of this effort to improve the role that science and scientists play in developing policies on important environmental issues.”
Established in 1998 and funded by the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, the Aldo Leopold Leadership Program was originally based at Oregon State University. It was subsequently housed at the New England Aquarium in Boston for two years before moving to the Stanford Institute for the Environment in January. It 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 2006 Leopold Leadership Fellowships. The deadline for applying is April 25, 2005.
For more information about the Aldo Leopold Leadership Program and the new Fellows, visit www.leopoldleadership.org. or contact Cynthia Barakatt, 978-688-7053 or Debbie Drake Dunne, 650-725-0651. For more information about the Stanford Institute for the Environment, visit http://environment.stanford.edu/.
