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2003 SOCIETY FOR CONSERVATION BIOLOGY AWARDS

• EDWARD T. LAROE III MEMORIAL AWARD

Stephen Schneider has conducted cutting edge research on atmospheric and ecosystems science and global climate change throughout his career. He spent a majority of his career at the U.S. National Center for Atmospheric Research, where he began communicating his scientific expertise to policy-makers and the general public through congressional testimony, service on international committees such as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and popular publications and talks. Throughout his career, Stephen Schneider has conducted pioneering work in the fields of atmospheric science and global climatology, including the relationship of biological systems to global climate change. He has initiated new research and policy directions in environmental issues by crossing disciplinary boundaries to combine diverse research contributions and original interdisciplinary syntheses. He has played a key role on many committees of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, as well as acting as editor of Climate Change, an interdisciplinary journal.

• DISTINGUISHED SERVICE AWARDS

Academia

Jane Lubchenco is the driving force behind the marine protected areas movement in the United States. In 1997 she held the presidency of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and is a current member of the U.S. National Science Board. She led the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis study on the theory of marine reserves. This study fueled the effort that led President Clinton to issue Executive Order 13158 calling for establishment of a national system of marine protected areas. Lubchenco is a member of the Pew Ocean Commission and has been instrumental in founding a number of groups dedicated to increasing scientific information available to decision-makers.

Outside Government and Academia

Inspired by their father's commitment to effective conservation, children and other family members of Aldo Leopold founded the Aldo Leopold Foundation on their family farm in Baraboo, Wisconsin. Graduate students, supported as Leopold Fellows, have conducted research on prairie restoration and ecological relationships in a prairie-savannah-forest-floodplain mosaic and made important contributions to the emerging field of ecological restoration. The program of diverse ecological research and restoration made possible by the Leopold family's support already has resulted in ecologically sound management of more than 1000 acres, six Master's theses, three Ph.D. dissertations, and more than two dozen scientific papers.

Social, Economic, and Political Work

In 1997, Martha Isabel Ruiz Corzo was designated the Federal Director of the Sierra Gorda Biosphere Reserve, the second most populated Reserve and the only natural protected area in Mexico championed by local society. As the local grassroots leader of the movement to protect the 32% of Querétaro State, Ruiz was the natural choice of former President Zedillo for this post. Her efforts have led to recognition of the Sierra Gorda Reserve as a national model for the establishment, maintenance, and promotion of Natural Protected Areas.

Education and Journalism

Sarath Kotagama was the first professional ornithologist in Sri Lanka and has continued to be a pioneer in environmental outreach, ecology, and conservation. During his tenure as Director of Wildlife Conservation, Sri Lanka ratified the Ramsar Convention and took the first substantive steps toward biodiversity conservation regulations. Kotagama has conducted more than 500 school and public lectures, authored numerous field guides and articles, and founded six national environmental organizations. He is the first and only professor of environmental science in Sri Lanka.

Government

As Chief of the U.S. Forest Service from 1997 to 2001, Michael Dombeck effectively made the conservation of biodiversity and ecosystem health the guiding principles for the U.S. government agencies with which he was associated. His tenure in office was marked by his explicit invocation of a land ethic, dedication to sustainable forest management, and work on internal institutional reform. For his efforts in these areas, Michael Dombeck was described in The New York Times as "the most aggressive conservationist to head the Forest Service in at least half a century."

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