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Details of Dr. Jane Lubchenco

Dr. Jane Lubchenco is a professor of marine biology and zoology at Oregon State University. She is an environmental scientist and marine ecologist who is actively engaged in teaching, research, synthesis and communication of scientific knowledge. She was born and grew up in Denver, one of six daughters of two physicians. She graduated from Colorado College with a B.A. in biology. During college, she fell in love with the ocean and its inhabitants during a summer course in invertebrate zoology at Woods Hole, Massachusetts. She has worked on and around oceans ever since. She received a maters degree from the University of Washington and a Ph.D. from Harvard University, both in marine ecology.

Lubchenco was an assistant professor at Harvard University for two years before moving with her husband, marine ecologist Bruce Menge, to Oregon State University. Bruce and Jane pioneered an arrangement that enabled each to teach and do research but also devote significant amounts of time to their young children. Each of them held a part-time but tenure-track position at OSU for 13 years. Each has been full time since 1989.

Lubchenco's contributions to OSU have been recognized with two titles: Wayne and Gladys Valley Professor of Marine Biology and Distinguished Professor of Zoology. Her expertise includes ocean ecosystems and the human/environment nexus: biodiversity, climate change, sustainability science, ecosystem services, marine reserves, coastal marine ecosystems, the state of the oceans and of the planet.

Lubchenco and Menge lead an interdisciplinary team of scientists who study the near-shore portion of the marine ecosystem off the coasts of Washington, Oregon, and California. The team is called PISCO (the Partnership for Interdisciplinary Studies of Coastal Oceans). With over $70 million in funding over ten years, the team from OSU, Stanford's Hopkins Marine Station, and the University of California at Santa Barbara and Santa Cruz is learning how the ecosystem works, how it is changing and how humans can modify their actions to ensure continued benefit from ocean ecosystems. PISCO conducts interdisciplinary research and shares new discoveries directly with interested citizens, policy makers, managers and the media.

The two also have active collaborative research programs with colleagues and students in New Zealand, Chile and South Africa, comparing coastal marine upwelling ecosystems around the world.

Lubchenco actively promotes science and communicates scientific knowledge in international and national arenas. She is past president of the International Council for Science (the first woman president in the 75 year-old organization). She has also served as president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and of the Ecological Society of America. She is serving a second term on the National Science Board, having been twice nominated by President Clinton and twice confirmed by the U.S. Senate. She is often invited to testify before Congress, addresses the United Nations, or provide scientific advice to the White House, federal and international agencies, non-governmental organizations, religious leaders and leaders of business and industry. She co-chaired Oregon Governor Kulongoski's advisory group on global warming that recommended actions the state should take to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions.

Lubchenco founded and co-leads the Aldo Leopold Leadership Program that teaches outstanding academic environmental scientists to be more effective communicators of scientific information to the public, policy makers, the media and the private sector.

She participated actively in the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, a 5-year, international scientific assessment of the consequences of environmental changes to human well-being. Among other things, she co-chaired the organization's Synthesis for Business and Industry.

Lubchenco is a founding principal of COMPASS, the Communication Partnership for Science and the Sea, a collaboration among academic scientists, communication and media specialists, and the Monterey Bay Aquarium's Center for the Future of the Oceans. COMPASS communicates academic marine conservation science to policy makers, the media, managers and the public.

Her scientific contributions in ecology are widely recognized. Eight of her publications have been named Science Citation Classic Papers. She is an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, the European Academy of Sciences, the Royal Society of London, and the Academy of Sciences for the Developing World.

She served on the Pew Oceans Commission and is currently on the steering committee of the Joint Oceans Commission Initiative that combines members from the Pew Oceans Commission and the U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy. She is a director or trustee of the Monterey Bay Aquarium, SeaWeb, and Environmental Defense. She is trustee emerita of the David and Lucile Packard Foundation and a former Trustee of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciencies Beijer International Institute for Ecological Economics and the World Resources Institute.

Lubchenco has received numerous awards including a MacArthur Fellowship, a Pew Fellowship, eight honorary degrees (including one from Princeton University), the 2002 Heinz Award in the Environment, the 2003 Nierenberg Prize for Science in the Public Interest, the 2004 Environmental Law Institute Award (the first scientist to receive this honor), and the 2005 American Association for the Advancement of Science's Award for Public Understanding of Science and Technology (the first woman to be so honored).