Log | School News
Endangered Species Expert Named Doris Duke Professor in
Conservation Ecology
 Stuart
Pimm, one of the world’s foremost experts
on endangered species and habitat destruction, has been named
the first Doris Duke Professor of Conservation Ecology in
the Nicholas School.
The professorship was endowed with a $1.7 million grant given
to Duke in 1997 by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, based
in New York City.
Pimm, who joins the faculty after serving as professor of
ecology at Columbia University’s Center for Environmental
Research and Conservation, labels himself as the “investment
banker of the global and biological accounts.” In his
latest book, The World According to Pimm (2001),
he balances the raw numbers of what the earth produces against
what humans take away, and he finds the numbers don’t
add up.
“I will not hector you about having many children,
driving a large car, eating meat,” he writes. But, “the
impacts I will describe already seriously degrade the lives
of huge numbers of people. We must do something to make our
actions sustainable. My key message is that it is possible
to have biodiversity and eat too.”
Working on the front lines of conservation biology since
the early ’70s, Stuart Pimm is one of the pioneers whose
work has put the “science” in environmental science.
His research covers the reasons why species become extinct,
how fast they do so, the global patterns of habitat loss and
species extinction,the role of introduced species in causing
extinction and, the management consequences of this research.
His current work includes studies on birds in the Everglades,
forests in Brazil, elephants in Africa, and predators in Madagascar
and, crucially, the ecosystems on which these species depend.
A native of Derbyshire, England, he is a tireless advocate
of conservation policy, regularly testifying before Congress
and publishing in New Scientist, Science
and Nature. He is the author of nearly
200 scientific papers, and two other books, Food Webs
(1982) and The Balance of Nature? (1991).
He holds a bachelor of arts from the University of Oxford
in England and a doctoral degree from New Mexico State University.
He was named an Aldo Leopold Leadership Fellow in 1999 and
a Pew Scholar in Conservation and the Environment in 1993,
and he received the Kemper Prize for Distinguished Ecologists
in 1994.
The Doris Duke Charitable Foundation’s mission is to
improve the quality of people’s lives by nurturing the
arts, protecting and restoring the environment, seeking cures
for diseases, and helping to protect children from abuse and
neglect. For more information, visit www.ddcf.org.
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