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Dr. George M. Woodwell
Dr. George M. Woodwell, founder and director of the Woods Hole Research Center in Massachusetts and pre-eminent among a small number of life scientists who study the earth and how it works as a single biophysical system, has received the 1996 Heinz Award in the category of the Environment.
From the beginning of his career, Dr. Woodwell has been in the forefront of addressing questions of how the world works as a single system, and how to tailor human activities to environmental imperatives. Over the years, he has directed a score of ecological studies including the effects of toxic chemicals on different ecosystems, soil chemistry and physics, the interaction of different ecosystems, and planetary carbon, sulfur and nitrogen cycles. He is also a distinguished scientist in other disciplines, including population biology, meteorology, climatology and forestry.
At the same time, Dr. Woodwell has consistently spent a large part of his time articulating scientific findings and recommendations in the public policy arena. He has never hesitated to take his environmental messages to political leaders in the United States as well as to agencies within the United Nations. While he has been criticized by his colleagues for overreaching his science, he has not been dissuaded and continues to be vocal about what he sees as the potential for the human race if certain steps are not taken at once. His research and testimony were key in a case that resulted in the banning of DDT in the United States.
Dr. Woodwell was instrumental in the founding of both the Environmental Defense Fund and the Natural Resources Defense Council. In 1975, he founded and became the first director of the Ecosystems Center at Woods Hole, where forlo years, he continued his study of the global carbon cycle. In 1985, he founded the Woods Hole Research Center to pursue broader scientific research and the public policy implications of that research.
Today, Dr. Woodwell's studies on the effects of global warming have placed him on the top of the list of individuals consulted by other scientists, Congress and foreign governments.
From the beginning of his career, Dr. Woodwell has been in the forefront of addressing questions of how the world works as a single system, and how to tailor human activities to environmental imperatives. Over the years, he has directed a score of ecological studies including the effects of toxic chemicals on different ecosystems, soil chemistry and physics, the interaction of different ecosystems, and planetary carbon, sulfur and nitrogen cycles. He is also a distinguished scientist in other disciplines, including population biology, meteorology, climatology and forestry.
At the same time, Dr. Woodwell has consistently spent a large part of his time articulating scientific findings and recommendations in the public policy arena. He has never hesitated to take his environmental messages to political leaders in the United States as well as to agencies within the United Nations. While he has been criticized by his colleagues for overreaching his science, he has not been dissuaded and continues to be vocal about what he sees as the potential for the human race if certain steps are not taken at once. His research and testimony were key in a case that resulted in the banning of DDT in the United States.
Dr. Woodwell was instrumental in the founding of both the Environmental Defense Fund and the Natural Resources Defense Council. In 1975, he founded and became the first director of the Ecosystems Center at Woods Hole, where forlo years, he continued his study of the global carbon cycle. In 1985, he founded the Woods Hole Research Center to pursue broader scientific research and the public policy implications of that research.
Today, Dr. Woodwell's studies on the effects of global warming have placed him on the top of the list of individuals consulted by other scientists, Congress and foreign governments.
