Richard T. Barber, PhD
Harvey W. Smith Professor of Biological Oceanography
Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences
Duke University

Richard Barber received his Bachelor’s degree from Utah State University and Doctorate from Stanford University.  He held a postdoctoral fellowship at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, followed with positions as assistant scientist at WHOI, associate professor at Duke University, professor at Duke, and executive director of the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute. Presently, he is the Harvey W. Smith Professor of Biological Oceanography at Duke. Author of more than 130 publications, his research interest is the regulation of primary productivity in ocean ecosystems. Current research involves modeling interannual and decadal variability of new and export productivity. Other work in progress deals with how climate change affects ocean ecosystems.

Barber is a Fellow of the California Academy of Science, the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Geophysical Union. He received a Creativity Award from the National Science Foundation, the John Holland Martin Medal of Excellence from Stanford University, the Rosenstiel Award in Oceanographic Science from Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science of University of Miami, and the international Ecology Institute Prize in Marine Ecology from the Ecology Institute. Barber has served as the advisor to 14 Doctoral students. He also has served as Council Member of The Oceanography Society, President of the American Society of Limnology and Oceanography, President of the Ocean Sciences Section of the American Geophysical Union, and the National Coordinator of the Coastal Upwelling Ecosystem Analysis.

Daniel Barstow
Director
Center for Science Teaching and Learning
TERC

Daniel Barstow is Director of TERC's Center for Science Teaching and Learning (CSTL).  TERC is an educational non-profit specializing in inquiry-based science, math and technology education.  CSTL, one of TERC’s work units, has a staff of 25, doing cutting-edge research and development in science curriculum, teacher professional development, web technologies, museum exhibits and policy reform.  Barstow has focused his efforts on Earth and space science education, including nationally-regarded work in the use of visualizations and inquiry-based learning.  Barstow has been a Principal Investigator (PI) or co-PI on several NSF, NOAA and NASA-funded projects, including Visualizing Earth, ISS EarthKAM, GLOBE, MarsQuest Online, Windows on Earth and the National Model for Earth Science as a Lab Course.  Barstow was a co-PI for the two National Conferences on the Revolution in Earth and Space Science Education, and is a leading voice for state and national policy reform to “make the revolution real” in Earth and space science education reform.

Paul Boyle, PhD
CEO and Chairman of the Ocean Project
Chair American Zoo and Aquarium Association

Paul Boyle is CEO and Chairman of the Ocean Project. He is also currently the chair of the American Zoo and Aquarium Association (AZA) ADISC. He was the Director of the New York Aquarium.  He has over twenty-five years experience creating and directing aquatic conservation, environmental science, public education, and museum exhibit programs.  Boyle earned a BA in Marine Science at Northeastern University, a Masters in Environmental Engineering at Harvard University, and a Ph.D. in Applied Environmental Sciences, also at Harvard, and graduated from the Wharton School’s Executive Management program.  Trained as an environmentalist and marine research scientist, he managed many different facets of nonprofit institutions before leading the nation’s oldest public aquarium in New York.   Boyle has earned many grants and awards for scientific and environmental research and making ocean science accessible to public audiences.  He has served on the Board of the Association of Zoos & Aquariums (AZA) and continues to serve as an advisor to AZA’s Animal Welfare Committee.  In 1996, Boyle founded The Ocean Project, an international effort with over 1,000 partner institutions working to increase awareness of the crucial roles the ocean plays in human survival. Today, The Ocean Project is one of the world’s leading organizations working to improve the effectiveness of ocean-related, public communications rooted in science, and engaging people in becoming personally involved in protecting our ocean for the future.

Judy Braus
Vice President
Education and Centers
National Audubon Society

Judy Braus received a Master’s degree in Applied Education from Georgetown University.  She has been actively involved in national and international environmental education efforts for more than twenty-five years. As the Director of Education for World Wildlife Fund-US (WWF), she oversaw the Windows on the Wild, the Russell Train Education for Nature Program, a national Biodiversity Traveling Exhibition Program supported by the National Science Foundation, and WWF’s Community Outreach Program.  Prior to WWF, Braus coordinated Peace Corps' environmental education activities and conducted workshops, assessments, evaluations, and programming activities in Africa, Asia, Latin America, the South Pacific, and Eastern Europe.  She also was the Director of School Programs at the National Wildlife Federation (NWF) and the editor of NatureScope. She was a senior editor on Ranger Rick, and the director of Wildlife Week, a national environmental education program reaching more than 500,000 educators annually.Judy served on the Board of the North American Association for Environmental Education (NAAEE) where she held positions as president and conference chair. She also serves on the national education steering committee of Project Learning Tree, the Biodiversity Project, and Dragonfly.  She has edited many educational publications, written several children's books, and co-authored a book for educators titled: Environmental Education in the Schools: Creating a Program That Works!

Awards granted to her include the 2004 Walter E. Jeske Award, NAAEE’s highest honor for leadership in the field of environmental education, the Elsie B. Naumburg Education Award from the Natural Science for Youth Foundation, the Rudolph J. H. Schafer award from the Western Regional Environmental Education, NAAEE’s 1993 Outstanding Environmental Educator, the 1998 Taft Campus Award, and the Project Learning Tree Gold Star award.

Andrew Dobson, PhD
Professor
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Princeton University

Andrew Dobson received a Bachelor’s degree from London University and a Doctorate from Oxford University.  He is currently a professor in the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Department at Princeton University. His research is concerned with the population ecology of infectious diseases and the conservation of endangered and threatened species. Over the last eight years, he has studied infectious diseases in a variety of endangered and fragile ecosystems. Each study has allowed Dobson to develop sections of a larger body of theory that deals with the role of infectious diseases in wild animal populations. The role that infectious diseases play in driving populations to extinction is one of the key unsolved problems of conservation biology. Although ecologists now realize that pathogens and parasites play a key role in regulating population numbers, infectious diseases often cause rapid declines in the abundance of threatened species and continue to plague captive breeding programs. In particular, he has been studying rinderpest in Ngorongoro crater and brucellosis in the Yellowstone National Park. These pathogens infect both wild and domestic species and frequently cause problems around the edge of nature reserves where their control is traditionally undertaken by culling the wild hosts. This creates a classic conflict of interest between farmers who wish to eradicate the pathogen and conservation biologists, who wish to conserve wildlife.

Robert B. Dunbar, PhD
Professor
Department of Geological and Environmental Sciences
Stanford University

Robert Dunbar received his Bachelor’s degree from the University of Texas at Austin and his doctorate from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego.  He currently is a professor in the Department of Geological and Environmental Sciences at Stanford University. Dunbar’s research interests link oceanography, climate dynamics and geochemistry. His research group works on topics related to global environmental change, with a focus on the coastal ocean, air-sea interactions and polar processes. The group is also engaged in interdisciplinary studies of global change in collaboration with environmental scientists, economists, lawyers and policy specialists at Stanford's Center for Environmental Science and Policy at the Institute of International Studies. He is the first director of the Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in Environment and Resources, the Victoria P. and Roger W. Sant Director of the Earth Systems Program, and a J. Frederick and Elisabeth B. Weintz University Fellow in Undergraduate Education, in recognition of teaching and mentoring Stanford undergraduates.

His research group is currently working on several projects in Antarctica to assess the impacts of climate change on Southern Ocean ecosystems and C-system chemistry. Much of this work focuses on the Ross Sea and East Antarctica where they are studying the modern uptake of carbon dioxide by the ocean. They also are using sediment cores from fjords and shelf basins of East Antarctica and the Antarctic Peninsula to study past changes in the Antarctic Ice Sheet.  The group specializes in studies of air-sea interactions during the past 50 to 12,000 years, using chemical, isotopic and morphological measurements of carbonate-producing organisms and sediments to investigate past climate variability. Current field areas include the Galápagos Islands, the Republic of Kiribati, Kenya, Easter Island, Chile, Sumatra, Tierra del Fuego, France and Lake Titicaca, Bolivia. Some of their studies deal with the long-term history of the El Niño-Southern Oscillation phenomena, its interactions with the Indian Monsoon and its impacts on North American Climate.

Sylvia A. Earle, PhD
Founder and Chairman,
Deep Ocean Exploration and Research, Inc.,
Explorer-in-Residence
National Geographic Society, and
Director
Sustainable Seas Expeditions

Sylvia Earle received a Bachelor’s degree from Florida State University, and Master’s and Doctorate degrees from Duke University.  She is Founder and Chairman of Deep Ocean Exploration and Research, Inc., Explorer in Residence at the National Geographic Society and Director of the Sustainable Seas Expeditions, Program Director of the Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies at Texas A & M in Corpus Christi and serves on the boards of the Aspen Institute, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Mote Marine Laboratory, Conservation Fund, Duke University Marine Laboratory, Rutgers University Marine and Coastal Studies Institute, American Rivers Foundation, The Explorers Club (Honorary), Ocean Futures, the National Marine Sanctuary Foundation, The National Parks Service Advisory Board Science Committee, the Ocean Conservancy, New England Aquarium, the Marine Conservation Biology Institute, SERDP, the Island School and New College. Formerly Chief Scientist of NOAA, she has also been Radcliffe Institute Scholar, Research Fellow at Harvard University and the University of California, Berkeley and Executive Director of Global Marine Programs for Conservation International. She also has served on major corporate Boards including Kerr McGee, Dresser Industries, Oryx Energy, and Undersea Industries as well as various national committees including the National Advisory Committee on Oceans and Atmosphere and the National Marine Board.

Earle’s research concerns the ecology of marine ecosystems with special reference to marine algae; exploration and evaluation of ocean wilderness and marine protected areas; and the development and use of new technologies for access and effective operations in the deep sea. Worldwide field experience includes leading more than 70 expeditions involving more than 6000 hours underwater, nine saturation diving missions in undersea laboratories and use of various submersibles.  Author of more than 150 publications, she has appeared in, narrated and helped produce numerous natural history and science films and given lectures in more than 60 countries.  She is a fellow of AAAS, Marine Technology Society, the Explorers Club, Royal Geographical Society, World Academy of Art and Science, and the California Academy of Sciences. Honors bestowed on her include the Netherlands Order of the Golden Ark; National Women’s Hall of Fame; Library of Congress Living Legend; Time Magazine’s first “Hero for the Planet;” Barnard College Medal; Australia’s Banksia International Award; Philadelphia Academy of Sciences Cooper Medal; St. Petersburg College Distinguished Alumna Award; Lindbergh Medal; National Wildlife Federation Ding Darling Conservation Medal; Robin Winks National Parks Medal; Director's Award, Natural Resources Council; DEMA Hall of Fame Award;  Golden Plate Award, American Academy of Achievement; Explorers Club Medal; Lowell Thomas Medal; US Dept. of Interior Conservation Service Award; L.A. Times Woman of the Year;  New England Aquarium David B. Stone Medal; Society of Women Geographers Gold Medal, International Award from the Geographical Society of Spain. Fellow of the Cal. Academy of Sciences, the Explorers Club, Marine Technology Society, AAAS, the Royal Geographical Society, World Academy of Art and Science, and has been profiled by ABC 202/20, CBS, CNN, Charlie Rose, New York Times, New Yorker, Life Magazine, Scientific American, Parade, People, and the NGS-TV.

John Francis, PhD
Vice President for Research, Conservation and Exploration
National Geographic Society
Washington D.C.

John Francis serves as Vice President for Research, Conservation, and Exploration at the National Geographic Society, directing funding of these disciplines through the Committee for Research and Exploration, the Conservation Trust, and the Expeditions Council. Francis also oversees the Society’s Center for Sustainable Destinations and the Remote Imaging laboratory and serves on boards for the National Park System, UNESCO, and the IUCN.  Since his beginning roles as grantee and then producer of wildlife films for National Geographic, he has worked to enhance connections between the scientific/conservation community and the public-- made possible through the Society’s global media and the funding of path breaking projects and technologies.

Francis received his Ph.D. from the University of California, Santa Cruz and spent five years as a postdoctoral fellow and research associate at the Smithsonian Institution.  He is a seasoned field biologist with particular interest in the behavioral ecology of marine mammals.

Nancy Knowlton, PhD
Sant Chair in Marine Science
Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History
Washington D.C.

Nancy Knowlton holds the Sant Chair in Marine Science at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History.  Her research focuses on the ecology, evolution and conservation of coral reef organisms. Her analyses have led to the now widespread recognition that estimates of marine diversity are probably too low by a factor of ten. Knowlton received her undergraduate degree at Harvard University and her PhD at the University of California at Berkeley, and was a professor at Yale University prior to moving to the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama.  Later, she joined the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California at San Diego, where she became the founding Director of the Center for Marine Biodiversity and Conservation. She currently serves on the National Geographic Society’s Committee on Research and Exploration and Conservation Trust Committee, chairs the World Bank’s Targeted Research Program for Coral Reefs, and is principal investigator of the Census of Marine Life’s Coral Reef Initiative.  She is an elected fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and an Aldo Leopold Fellow.

Rebecca Lewison, PhD
Assistant Professor of Ecology
San Diego State University, and
University of California, Davis

Rebecca Lewison attained her Bachelor’s degree from Vassar College and went on to complete her Doctorate in Ecology at the University of California, Davis. She currently is Assistant Professor in the Biology Department at San Diego State University, and with the joint doctoral program at the University of California at Davis. She oversees graduate students who are studying the impacts of human activities on vulnerable wildlife populations in Southern California. Lewison has conducted research on hippopotamus foraging and population dynamics in Tanzania.  Her current research focuses on the impact of resource and land use on vulnerable wildlife populations, and spans terrestrial and marine environments including wildlife populations from a wide range of taxa and geographic regions; common hippopotamus in sub-Saharan Africa, mountain lion in California, sea turtles in the Gulf of Mexico, and albatross in the North Pacific Ocean. 

As one of the world’s authorities on hippos, Lewison has served as the Chair for the IUCN Hippo Specialist Group, working to improve common and pygmy hippo conservation through education and research.  She also serves as a scientific advisor for the AZA Taxon Advisory Group for hippos.  Presently, she is spearheading an international project to assess the impacts of fisheries bycatch on at-risk seabird, marine mammal and sea turtle populations. Together with colleagues from Duke University, her work has provided the first assessments of the potential impacts of fisheries bycatch at ocean-wide scales.

Thomas E. Lovejoy, PhD
President
The Heinz Center

Thomas Lovejoy received his Bachelor’s and Doctorate degrees in Biology from Yale University.  He currently is President of The Heinz Center.  Previously, he was the World Bank’s Chief Biodiversity Advisor and Lead Specialist for Environment for Latin America and the Caribbean, and Senior Advisor to the President of the United Nations Foundation. Lovejoy has been Assistant Secretary and Counselor to the Secretary at the Smithsonian Institution, Science Advisor to the Secretary of the Interior, and Executive Vice President of the World Wildlife Fund–U.S. He conceived the idea for the Minimum Critical Size of Ecosystems project (a joint project between the Smithsonian and Brazil's INPA), originated the concept of debt-for-nature swaps, and is the founder of the public television series Nature.  In 2001 he was awarded the prestigious Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement. Lovejoy served on science and environmental councils or committees under the Reagan, Bush, and Clinton administrations.

Jane Lubchenco, PhD
Wayne and Gladys Valley Professor of Marine Biology
Distinguished Professor of Zoology
Oregon State University

Jane Lubchenco received a Bachelor’s from Colorado College, a Master’s from the University of Washington and a Doctorate from Harvard University in marine ecology. She was an assistant professor at Harvard University before moving to Oregon State University where she is the Wayne and Gladys Valley Professor of Marine Biology and Distinguished Professor of Zoology. Her expertise includes biodiversity, climate change, sustainability science, coastal marine ecosystems, and the state of the oceans and the planet.  She leads an interdisciplinary team of scientists from OSU, Stanford, and the University of California at Santa Barbara and at Santa Cruz called PISCO (the Partnership for Interdisciplinary Studies of Coastal Oceans) that studies the near-shore marine ecosystem off Washington, Oregon and California and how this system works and is changing.  She also has research programs with colleagues in New Zealand, Chile and South Africa, comparing coastal marine upwelling ecosystems around the world.

Lubchenco is President of the International Council for Science, and was President of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and of the Ecological Society of America. She is serving a second term on the National Science Board. She co-chaired Oregon Governor Kulongoski's Advisory Group on Global Warming.  She founded and co-leads the Aldo Leopold Leadership. She participated in the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, co-chaired the MA Synthesis for Business and Industry, and is a Principal of COMPASS, the Communication Partnership for Science and the Sea, a consortium to communicate marine conservation science to policy makers, the media, managers and the public.  Eight of her publications are designated "Science Citation Classic Papers". She is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, the Royal Society and the Third World Academy of Sciences.  She served on the Pew Oceans Commission and the Joint Oceans Commission Initiative and is a Trustee of the Monterey Bay Aquarium, SeaWeb and Environmental Defense, Trustee Emerita of the David and Lucile Packard Foundation.  Lubchenco has received numerous awards including a MacArthur Fellowship, a Pew Fellowship, the 2002 Heinz Award in the Environment, the 2003 Nierenberg Prize for Science in the Public Interest, and the 2004 Environmental Law Institute Award (the first scientist to receive this honor).

Harold A. Mooney, PhD
Professor
Environmental Biology and Population Biology
Stanford University

Harold Mooney received his Doctorate from Duke University. He currently is Professor of Environmental Biology and Population Biology at Stanford University.  He has demonstrated that convergent evolution takes place in the properties of different ecosystems that are subject to comparable climates, and has been a pioneer in the study of the allocation of resources in plants. He has worked in many of Earth's diverse ecosystems, including the arctic-alpine, the Mediterranean-climate scrub and grasslands, tropical wet and dry forests and the deserts of the world. 

Research in Mooney's laboratory is currently centered on the study of the impact of enhanced CO2 on ecosystem structure and function. These studies are in collaboration with the Carnegie Institution of Washington at Stanford and utilize the annual grasslands of Stanford's Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve. Part of this research is probing the genetic and environmental factors that determine the pattern of resource allocation in plants. New studies are also being developed that will compare the response to global change of matched ecosystems in western North and South America, extending from deserts to temperate rain forests. Another current activity of the Mooney laboratory is the study of the ecosystem function of biodiversity. Mooney has received the Mercer Award of the Ecological Society of America and the Merit Award of the Botanical Society of America. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Philosophical Society and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. 

Ron Keith O’Dor, PhD
Senior Scientist
Census of Marine Life (COML)
Consortium for Oceanographic Research and Education, and
Associate Dean of Science, Research and Development
Dalhousie UniversityRon O’Dor is currently Senior Scientist for the Census of Marine Life (COML) at the Consortium for Oceanographic Research and Education. He is also the Associate Dean of Science, Research and Development at Dalhousie University where he was formally Director of the Aquatron Laboratory and Chair of Biology.  After degrees in biochemistry and medical physiology, his post-doctoral research at Cambridge University and the Stazione Zoologica in Naples introduced him to cephalopods and marine biology.  His career interest has been focused on cephalopods and on studies of their behavior and physiology in nature using various kinds of acoustic telemetry, which has found wide application in monitoring spatial requirements of endangered species and in underwater surveys of benthic organisms.
 
In addition to recent high-profile media activities related to global biodiversity for COML, O’Dor has authored and edited several volumes on cephalopod biology, from physiology to fisheries, been President of the Cephalopod International Advisory Council, a consultant for the FAO and a speaker and an organizer at ICES and PICES meetings.  With students and collaborators, he has published on biodiversity and extensively on the exercise physiology, behavior and bioenergetics of cephalopods, including octopuses, cuttlefishes, squids and the living fossil, Nautilus.  This research has included species from a collection of islands and every continent but Antarctica.

Sandra Postel
Director
Global Water Policy Project, and
Visiting Senior Lecturer in Environmental Studies
Mount Holyoke College

Sandra Postel received a Bachelor’s (summa cum laude) in Geology and Political Science from Wittenberg University, and a Master’s in Environmental Management with emphasis on resource economics and policy from Duke University. She currently is Director of the Global Water Policy Project and Visiting Senior Lecturer in Environmental Studies at Mount Holyoke College.  She has served as Vice President for Research at the Worldwatch Institute, where she remains affiliated as Senior Fellow. In 2002, she was named one of the "Scientific American 50," by Scientific American magazine. Postel's work is dedicated to the preservation and sustainable use of Earth's fresh water ecosystems. A leading authority on international water issues, Postel is author of Pillar of Sand: Can the Irrigation Miracle Last? and of Last Oasis: Facing Water Scarcity, which was chosen by Choice magazine as a 1993 Outstanding Academic Book. Last Oasis appears in eight languages and was the basis for a PBS documentary that aired in 1997. Postel's article "Troubled Waters," was selected for inclusion in the 2001 edition of Best American Science and Nature Writing. She is also co-author (with Brian Richter) of Rivers for Life: Managing Water for People and Nature, which calls for new approaches to harmonizing human and ecosystem needs for fresh water.

Postel has authored more than 100 articles for popular and scholarly publications, including Science, Natural History, Scientific American, Foreign Policy, BioScience, Ecological Applications, Technology Review, Environmental Science and Technology, International Wildlife, and Water International. She has written op-ed features that have appeared in newspapers in the United States and abroad, including The New York Times and The Washington Post. A frequent conference speaker and lecturer, she also has served as commentator on CNN's "Futurewatch," addressed the European Parliament on environmental issues, and appeared on radio and television, including CBS "Sunday Morning," ABC's "Nightline," and NPR's "Science Friday."  She is an advisor to the Division on Earth and Life Studies of the U.S. National Research Council, and has served on the Board of Directors of the International Water Resources Association and on the editorial boards of Ecosystems, Water Policy, and Green Futures. She has received two honorary Doctor of Science degrees and been awarded the Duke University School of Environment's Distinguished Alumni Award, a Pew Scholars Award in Conservation and the Environment, and a lifetime chair with the International Water Academy in Oslo, Norway.

Andrew Rosenberg, PhD
Professor
Ocean Process and Analysis Laboratory
Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans and Space
University of New Hampshire

Andrew Rosenberg holds a Bachelor’s in Fisheries Biology from the University of Massachusetts, a Master’s in Oceanography from Oregon State University and a Doctorate in Biology from Dalhousie University.  He is a Professor of Ocean Process and Analysis in the Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans and Space at the University of New Hampshire.  He also is a member of the U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy.  Formerly, he was the Deputy Director of NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS).  As Deputy Director he dealt with policy decisions on science and resource management issues nationwide as well as the administration of the agency.  He was also a principle agency spokesperson before Congress, the public and technical audiences.  Before becoming Deputy Director, Rosenberg was the NMFS Northeast Regional Administrator.  He negotiated and implemented the recovery program for New England fisheries, reversing overfishing and resource declines on George’s Bank as well as other areas for groundfish and scallop fisheries.  He also worked to develop and implement marine mammal recovery programs and endangered species protections throughout the northeast.  He also has served as the U.S. lead representative in several international fishery management organizations such as NAFO, NASCO and FAO. 

Rosenberg’s scientific work is in the field of population dynamics, resource assessment and resource management policy. He was on the faculty of Imperial College of Science and Technology in London, and was the Deputy Director of the Renewable Resources Assessment Group, an internationally known quantitative analysis and policy consultancy group.  He currently serves as the Senior Vice President of MRAG Americas, a consulting company, and affiliated with MRAG, a London-based international marine resource consultancy.

Steve H. Schneider, PhD
Professor
Department of Biological Sciences
Co-Director
Center for Environmental Science and Policy, and
Interdisciplinary Program in Environment and Resources
Stanford University

Stephen Schneider received his Doctorate in Mechanical Engineering and Plasma Physics from Columbia University.  He is a professor in the Department of Biological Sciences, Co-Director of the Center for Environmental Science and Policy and Co-Director of the Interdisciplinary Program in Environment and Resources, and Professor by Courtesy in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Stanford University. He was honored with a MacArthur Fellowship for his ability to integrate and interpret the results of global climate research through public lectures, seminars, classroom teaching, environmental assessment committees, media appearances, Congressional testimony and research collaboration with colleagues. He has served as a consultant to Federal Agencies and/or White House staff in the Nixon, Carter, Reagan, Bush Sr., Clinton and Bush Jr. administrations. He also received the American Association for the Advancement of Science/ Westinghouse Award for Public Understanding of Science and Technology, for furthering public understanding of environmental science and its implications for public policy. He is a foreign member of the Academia Europaea, Earth and Cosmic Sciences Section, has been elected Chair of the American Association for the Advancement of Science's Section on Atmospheric and Hydrospheric Sciences, and was elected to membership in the US National Academy of Sciences.

His current global change research interests include: climatic change; global warming; food/climate and other environmental/science public policy issues; ecological and economic implications of climatic change; integrated assessment of global change; climatic modeling of paleoclimates and of human impacts on climate, e.g., carbon dioxide "greenhouse effect" or environmental consequences of nuclear war. He also is interested in advancing public understanding of science and in improving formal environmental education in primary and secondary schools. He was a Coordinating Lead Author in Working Group II of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (under the auspices of the World Meteorological Organization and the United Nations Environment Program) from 1997-2001 and was a Lead Author in Working Group I from 1994-1996. Schneider was also a lead author of the IPCC guidance paper on uncertainties. He is currently a co-anchor of the Key Vulnerabilities (including Article 2) Cross-Cutting Theme for the Fourth Assessment Report (AR4) of the IPCC. Schneider has also authored an excellent website on global climate change. 

Michael Sutton
Vice President and Director
Center for the Future of the Oceans
Monterey Bay Aquarium

Michael Sutton received a Bachelor’s degree in Wildlife Biology from Utah State University, and pursued graduate studies in marine biology at the University of Sydney, Australia where his research involved the behavioral ecology of coral reef fishes on the Great Barrier Reef.  He then received a law degree in International and Natural Resources Law from George Washington University's National Law Center in Washington, D.C.

Currently, he serves as Vice President of the Monterey Bay Aquarium and directs a new program known as the Center for the Future of the Oceans.  The mission of the Center is to inspire action for conservation of the oceans. Previously, Sutton headed the Marine Fisheries Program at the David & Lucile Packard Foundation.

Sutton joined the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) to work on international wildlife policy issues where he was appointed Vice President responsible for the U.S. Land & Wildlife Program.  At WWF, he also founded and directed the Endangered Seas Campaign. Sutton formed a business/environment partnership with Unilever, the world’s largest buyer of frozen fish, and WWF to co-found the Marine Stewardship Council to harness market forces and consumer power in favor of sustainable fisheries. Before joining the WWF staff, Sutton served as a special agent with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and as a park ranger with the National Park Service in Yosemite, Yellowstone, Biscayne, and Virgin Islands National Parks and Death Valley National Monument.  He has served as a senior advisor to the Secretary of Commerce and the Secretary of State on marine fishery issues, sitting on two Federal Advisory Committees.  He was a founding member of the national steering committees of both the Marine Fish Conservation Network and the Ocean Wildlife Campaign.  He has lectured at graduate seminars on marine conservation policy at Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Stanford, Tufts, George Washington University, and the University of Rhode Island.

Cynthia Vernon
Vice President of Conservation Programs
Monterey Bay Aquarium

Cynthia Vernon holds a Bachelor’s in Zoology from DePauw University and a Master’s in Animal Behavior from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.  She currently directs the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s education and conservation research programs, which includes programming for school and youth groups, professional development for teachers, and management of 600 volunteer guides. She also oversees the aquarium’s research programs on tuna and sea otters, as well as the Seafood Watch program (sustainable seafood choices) and the Communications Partnership for Science and the Sea (COMPASS).  

Prior to her current position, Vernon was Curator of Education, then Director of Communications at the Brookfield Zoo (Chicago), managing all formal and informal education programming, evaluation, and internal communications. She also served on the Zoo’s Capital Coordinating Team, overseeing a 10-year, $40M capital improvement program which produced several award-winning exhibits. Vernon is active in the American Zoo and Aquarium Association (AZA) as an instructor, conference presenter, and committee member.