Steering Committee Biographies

William C. Clark is Harvey Brooks Professor of International Science, Public Policy, and Human Development at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. Trained as an ecologist, his research focuses on the interactions of environment, development, and security concerns in international affairs. He is coauthor of Adaptive Environmental Assessment and Management (Wiley, 1978) and Redesigning Rural Development (Hopkins, 1982); editor of The Carbon Dioxide Review (Oxford, 1982); and coeditor of Sustainable Development of the Biosphere (Cambridge, 1986), The Earth Transformed by Human Action (Cambridge, 1990), Learning to Manage Global Environmental Risks (MIT 2001), and Global Environmental Assessment (MIT, 2006). He co-chaired the U.S. National Research Council study on Our Common Journey: A Transition Toward Sustainability and chairs the Heinz Center project The State of the Nation's Ecosystems (Cambridge, 2002). He is an editor of Environment, Annual Review of Environment and Resources, and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Clark is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and a recipient of the MacArthur Prize, the Humboldt Prize, and the Kennedy School's Carballo Award for excellence in teaching. He holds a BS in biology from Yale University; and a PhD in ecology from the University of British Columbia in Canada.

Dr. Alberts is immediate past-president of the National Academy of Sciences and has recently returned to the University of California, San Francisco. He has been reelected as Co-chair of the InterAcademy Council, an advisory institution governed by the presidents of fifteen science academies worldwide. Dr. Alberts is an internationally respected biochemist particularly recognized for his work in DNA replication. He has spent his career making significant contributions to the field of life sciences, serving in different capacities on a number of prestigious advisory and editorial boards, including as chair of the Commission on Life Sciences, National Research Council. Until his election as president of the National AcademY of sciences in 1993, he was president-elect of the American Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, and he will be the president of the American Society of Cell Biology in 2007. Dr. Alberts has long been committed to the improvement of science education, dedicating much of his time to educational projects such as City Science, a program seeking to improve science teaching in San Francisco elementary schools. He has served on the advisory board of the National Science Resources Center, a joint project of the National Academy of Sciences and the Smithsonian Institution working with teachers, scientists, and school systems to improve teaching of science, as well as on the National Academy of Sciences' National Committee on Science Education Standards and Assessment. He earned a doctorate from Harvard University in 1965. He joined the faculty of Princeton University in 1966 and after ten years was appointed professor and vice chair of the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). In 1980, he was awarded the honor of an American Cancer Society Lifetime Research Professorship. In 1985, he was named chair of the UCSF Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics. He is one of the original authors of The Molecular Biology of the Cell, considered the leading textbook in his field and used widely in U.S. colleges and universities. His most recent text, Essential Cell Biology (2003), is intended to approach this subject matter for a wider audience.

Rita Colwell is Senior Advisor and Honorary Chair of Canon US Life Sciences, Inc. and Distinguished University Professor both at the University of Maryland at College Park and at Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health. Her interests are focused on global infectious diseases, water, and health, and she is currently developing an international network to address emerging infectious diseases and water issues, including safe drinking water for both the developed and developing world. Dr. Colwell served as the 11th Director of the National Science Foundation, 1998-2004. In her capacity as NSF Director, she served as co-chair of the Committee on Science of the National Science and Technology Council. Before going to NSF, Dr. Colwell was President of the University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute and Professor of Microbiology and Biotechnology at the University Maryland. She was also a member of the National Science Board from 1984 to 1990. One of her major interests include K-12 science and mathematics education, graduate science and engineering education and the increased participation of women and minorities in science and engineering. Dr. Colwell has held many advisory positions in the U.S. Government, nonprofit science policy organizations, and private foundations, as well as in the international scientific research community. She is a nationally-respected scientist and educator, and has authored or co-authored 16 books and more than 700 scientific publications. Dr. Colwell is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, Stockholm, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Philosophical Society. Dr. Colwell holds a B.S. in Bacteriology and an M.S. in Genetics, from Purdue University, and a Ph.D. in Oceanography from the University of Washington.

Claire Fraser-Liggett is President and Director of The Institute for Genomic Research (TIGR). As leader of the teams that sequenced the genomes of several microbial organisms, Dr. Fraser-Liggett has helped initiate the era of comparative genomics. Her research interests include whole genome sequence analysis of microbial genomes, and the use of genomic-based approaches to elucidate differences in gene expression. Dr. Fraser-Liggett is also a professor of pharmacology and microbiology and tropical medicine at the George Washington University School of Medicine. She oversees numerous research projects, including the genomic sequencing of Bacillus anthracis. Prior to assuming the title of president in 1998, she served as the Institute’s vice president of research and director of its Microbial Genomics Department. Previously, Dr. Fraser-Liggett was a researcher at the National Institutes of Health and was former chief of the Section of Molecular Neurobiology at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. Her numerous academic and professional honors include the E. O. Lawrence Award from the Department of Energy; the ASM Promega Biotechnology Award; honorary Doctor of Science degrees from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), the University of Bergen, and the University of Minnesota; a Computerworld Smithsonian Award for Innovation in Information Technology; an IMAS Award from The Institute for Mathematics and Advanced Supercomputing, and a RPI Alumni Association Fellows Award. She is a three-time winner of Maryland’s Top 100 Women award. Dr. Fraser-Liggett has published more than 230 articles in scientific journals and books. She edited two volumes in the Receptor Biochemistry and Methodology series on neurotransmitter receptors. She is a former editor for Comparative and Microbial Genomics and for the International Encyclopedia of Pharmacology and Therapeutics. She earned her B.S. from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and Ph.D. from State University of New York at Buffalo.

Mohamed H. A. Hassan is Executive Director of the Academy of Sciences for the Developing World (TWAS), which promotes scientific capacity and excellence for sustainable development in the South. Hassan is also President of the African Academy of Sciences (AAS), Secretary General of the Third World Network of Scientific Organizations (TWNSO), and serves on a number of committees with other organizations worldwide. A former professor and Dean of the School of Mathematical Sciences at the University of Khartoum, he received the order of scientific merit of Brazil and is a fellow of TWAS, AAS, and the Islamic Academy of Sciences as well as an honorary member of the Colombian Academy of Exact, Physical and Natural Sciences. His research areas include theoretical plasma physics, physics of wind erosion and sand transport. Dr. Hassan has a Ph.D. in Plasma Physics from the University of Oxford, UK.

Dr. Jane Lubchenco, immediate past president of the International Council for Science (ICSU), is an environmental scientist and marine ecologist who is actively engaged in teaching, research, synthesis and communication of scientific knowledge. She is Valley Professor of Marine Biology and Distinguished Professor of Zoology at Oregon State University. Her research interests include biodiversity, climate change, sustainability science and the state of the oceans. She has received numerous awards including a MacArthur Fellowship, a Pew Fellowship, the 2002 Heinz Award in the Environment, and the Nierenberg Prize for Science in the Public Interest from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, 2003. She is a member of the National Academy of Sciences. She is past president of both AAAS and the Ecological Society of America. She is also a National Science Board Member (twice nominated by President Clinton and twice confirmed by the US Senate) She received her Ph.D. and taught at Harvard University before moving to Oregon State University.

Julia Marton-Lefèvre is the Director General of the World Conservation Union (IUCN). She was previously Rector of the University for Peace, a UN Treaty Organization with its main campus in San José, Costa Rica. She is also Vice Chair of the World Resources Institute and a member of a number of boards and commissions, including: the Board of Directors of the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) and LEAD International, and the Board of Trustees of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina. Before her position at the University for Peace, she was Executive Director of LEAD (Leadership for Environment and Development) International, founded by the Rockefeller Foundation and dedicated to training people from all over the world in the techniques of sustainable development. Before LEAD, she was Executive Director of the International Council for Science (ICSU), based in Paris. From 1992 to 2002 she was a member of the China Council for International Cooperation in Environment and Development, and has also served on the Oxford Commission on Sustainable Consumption as well as on the Committee on Science and Technology in Developing Countries (COSTED). Ms. Marton-Lefèvre has co-authored numerous books and papers. In 1999 she received the AAAS Award for International Cooperation in Science. She is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society of the United Kingdom. She studied history, ecology and environmental planning in the US and in France.

Anthony McMichael is Director of the Australian National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health at the Australian National University in Canberra. His research interests encompass occupational disease, including social and physical influences on patterns of health in an urban environment; life course epidemiological prospectus on infant/child/adult evolution of disease risks; diet, nutrition, energy balance and health on both individual and population aspects; food safety; environmental health hazards; and ecological sustainability and health. He has previously taught at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, United Kingdom, where he helped to establish the Centre on Globalisation, Environmental Change and Health. Since 1993 he has been coordinating the assessment of health impacts for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. He has also obtained Fellow Memberships at the Faculty of Public Health Medicine (UK) (1995); the Royal College of Physicians (1998); and the Academy of Medicine Sciences (1999). During 1990-92, he chaired the Scientific Council, International Agency for Research on Cancer (WHO). He has a major interest in assessing the health risks from global environmental change, having contributed particularly to the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on climate change. He is a member of the International Science Panel on Population and Environment. Prof. McMichael has authored 3 books including "Planetary Overload: Global Environmental Change and the Health of the Human Species"(1993) and "Human Frontiers, Environments and Diseases: Past Patterns, Uncertain Futures” (2001) by Cambridge University Press. He has also co-edited 6 books and published over 300 peer-reviewed scientific papers and book chapters. Dr. McMichael received his PhD in Epidemiology from the Department of Social and Preventive Medicine, Monash University, Australia.

Professor M S Swaminathan is Chairman of the M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation, a non-profit organization located in India that imparts a pro-nature, pro-poor and pro-women orientation to a job-led economic growth strategy in rural areas through harnessing science and technology for environmentally sustainable and socially equitable development. He currently holds the UNESCO Chair in Ecotechnology at the M S Swaminathan Research Foundation in Chennai (Madras), India and Chairman of the National Commission on Agriculture, Food and Nutrition Security of India. A plant geneticist by training, Professor Swaminathan's contributions to the agricultural renaissance of India have led to his being widely referred to as the scientific leader of the green revolution movement. His advocacy of sustainable agriculture leading to an ever-green revolution makes him an acknowledged world leader in the field of sustainable food security. He was Chairman of the UN Science Advisory Committee set up in 1980 to take follow-up action on the Vienna Plan of Action. He has also served as Independent Chairman of the FAO Council and President of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources. He is the current President of the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs. The International Association of Women and Development conferred on him the first international award for significant contributions to promoting the knowledge, skill, and technological empowerment of women in agriculture and for his pioneering role in mainstreaming gender considerations in agriculture and rural development. Professor Swaminathan was awarded the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Community Leadership in 1971, the Albert Einstein World Science Award in 1986, and the first World Food Prize in 1987. Professor Swaminathan is a Fellow of many of the leading scientific academies of India and the world, including the Royal Society of London and the US National Academy of Sciences.

John Wooley is Associate Vice Chancellor for Research at the University of California San Diego, an adjunct Professor in Pharmacology, as well as in Chemistry and Biochemistry, and a Strategic Advisor and Senior Fellow of the San Diego Supercomputer Center. Dr. Wooley created the first programs within the US federal government for funding research in bioinformatics and in computational biology, and has been involved in strengthening the interface between computing and biology for more than a decade. For the new UCSD California Institute for Telecommunication and Information Technology, Dr. Wooley directs the biology and biomedical layer or applications component, termed Digitally-enabled Genomic Medicine, a step in delivering personalized medicine in a wireless clinical setting. His current research involves bioinformatics and structural genomics, while his principle administrative objectives at UCSD are to stimulate new research initiatives for large scale, multidisciplinary challenges. He also collaborates in developing scientific applications of information technology and high performance computing; creating industry-university collaborations; expanding applied life science opportunities, notably around drug discovery; establishing a biotechnology and pharmacology science park on UCSD's health sciences campus zone. He received his Ph.D. degree at the University of Chicago in biological physics.

Kamaljit Bawa is Distinguished Professor in the Department of Biology, University of Massachusetts, Boston. A tropical biologist by training, he has conducted extensive research in both India and Central America, in areas related to conservation policy and sustainable resource use. His current focus is on the magnitude, causes, and consequences of deforestation in the tropics. He examines economic, cultural, and social forces that accelerate deforestation and other forms of environmental degradation. Dr. Bawa is also interested in institutional constraints and responses to solutions pertaining to deforestation and loss of biodiversity, and he and his colleagues are testing various models of sustainable use of forest resources. He has authored several papers and books on the ecology of tropical forests, deforestation, and reproductive biology of tropical forest trees and plants. He is also the founder of a non-profit organization called Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE) in India, which helps to conserve biodiversity and promote sustainable development at local, regional, and national levels. He is a recipient of the Bullard Fellowship, Guggenheim Fellowship, and Pew Charitable Trust's Pew Scholars award for Conservation and the Environment. Dr. Bawa is past-president of the Association for Tropical Biology and is currently a member of the U.S. National Committee for the International Union of Biological Sciences. He received his Ph.D. in Botany from Panjab University in India.

Joel Cracraft is Curator-in-Charge of the Department of Ornithology, American Museum of Natural History (AMNH). He currently has professorial appointments in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences (Center for Environmental Research and Conservation) at Columbia University and in Biology at the City University of New York. His research interests are systematic biology, biological diversification, and biogeography. He has written and edited books on phylogenetics and the biodiversity crisis, in addition to over 150 scientific papers. He is a recipient of the Elliott Coues Award from the American Ornithologists' Union, and was elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He is a member of 14 professional societies and has held office or served on the board of many of them, including being a past president of the Society of Systematic Biologists, and the American Institute of Biological Sciences. He has been active in efforts to promote systematics and biodiversity science, including Systematics Agenda 2000/US (co-chair), Systematics Agenda 2000 International (Steering Committee), Biodiversity Panel of the President's Council of Advisors for Science and Technology, OSTP (member), and the international biodiversity science program DIVERSITAS (Steering Committee). He is currently the vice-chair of the U.S. National Committee for the International Union of Biological Sciences. He also is the co-editor of the book, “Assembling the Tree of Life” (2004). He received his Ph.D. in biology from Columbia University.

Marvalee Wake is a professor in the Department of Integrative Biology, University of California, Berkeley and current President of the American Institute for Biological Sciences (AIBS). She was Assistant and Associate Dean of the College of Letters and Science, Chair of the Departments of Zoology and Integrative Biology, and was Chancellor’s Professor of Integrative Biology. Her research and teaching interests are in evolutionary morphology and development, including the evolution of reproductive modes, and biodiversity science. She is past president of the American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists, the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology, and is the immediate past president of the International Union for Biological Sciences. She served on the Smithsonian Science Commission, the U.S. National Research Council’s Board on Sustainable Development, the AIBS Board of Directors, and a number of other committees and boards. She was a Guggenheim Fellow in 1988-1989, is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the California Academy of Sciences, and was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2003. She has written more than 190 publications, including edited volumes, research articles, and discussions of biodiversity science and integrative biology. She is currently an ex-officio member of the U.S. National Committee for the International Union of Biological Sciences. She received her Ph.D. in biology from the University of Southern California.