Jane Lubchenco
Encyclopedia
Dr. Jane Lubchenco is a Ukrainian-American
environmental scientist and marine
ecologist. On March 19, 2009, she was confirmed by the U.S. Senate as the first woman to serve as the administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
(NOAA).
While performing duties as head of NOAA, Dr. Lubchenco, The Wayne and Gladys Valley Professor of Marine Biology
and Oregon State University
Distinguished Professor of Zoology, has taken a leave of absence from her work at the university. She grew up in Colorado
, received her undergraduate degree from Colorado College
in 1969, received her PhD and taught at Harvard University
.
Lubchenco's research interests include biodiversity
, climate change
, sustainability science
, and the state of the ocean
s. She has received numerous awards, including a MacArthur Fellowship, a Pew Fellowship, eight honorary degrees (including one from Princeton University
), the 8th Annual Heinz Award
in the Environment (2002), and the Nierenberg Prize
for Science in the Public Interest from the Scripps Institute of Oceanography (2003). Between 1997 and 1998, she served as president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science
.
Following her confirmation to head NOAA and to serve as Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere
, Lubchenco declared that science
would guide the agency and that she expects it to play a role in developing a green economy
.
Early Life and Education =
Dr. Lubchenco was born on December 4, 1947 in Denver, Colorado as the oldest of six daughters. Her parents were both doctors, but her mother worked part-time to raise her six girls and encourage them to each pursue their own interests. She attended St. Mary’s Academy, a Catholic high school and set the bar high as an athlete, scholar and leader. After winning the top award at her high school, she had her pick of top colleges and universities, but chose to study at Colorado College in the neighboring small town of Colorado Springs. While enrolled in a summer class at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, she discovered a love for biology and found a passion for “invertebrates and research”. She then made the pivotal decision to attend grad school to further study marine science. She graduated with a B.S. in Biology in 1969 and began attending grad school in the fall at the University of Washington . Talk amongst her fellow graduate students convinced Jane to begin work on a thesis which combined evolutionary theory and real-world experimentation, which was the hot idea in ecology at the time that we see carried through the rest of her work. Thus, she began investigating into the use of resources and competition among sea stars. While working on researching her thesis, she met fellow grad student Bruce Menge, who was also doing work on sea stars. Jane acted as a field assistant to Menge as he did his research, an action he reciprocated when she began her s a couple of years later, cementing the bond between them. The two were soon married and Jane graduated with her M.S. in Zoology in 1971 . She then moved to Harvard University to pursue her PhD while her husband worked as a professor in at University of Massachusetts in Boston.
Academic Career =
After obtaining her PhD in 1975, Dr. Lubchenco worked as an assistant professor at Harvard University until 1977, taking some time in 1976 to complete a visiting professorship at the University of the West Indies in Kingston, Jamaica. In 1977, she and her husband moved to Oregon State University in Corvallis, Oregon, where she spent the next thirty years teaching, moving up from assistant professor (1977-1982) to an associate professor (1982-1988) to full professor in 1988. Dr. Lubchenco served as head of the zoology department from 1989-1992. In 1993, she was made a distinguished professor and in 1995 she was given the title of Wayne and Gladys Valley Professor of Marine Biology. That same year she began her teaching relationship with the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand. One of most remarkable aspects of Dr. Lubchenco’s position at Oregon State University was the arrangement worked out between Dr. Lubchenco and her husband and the university in 1977. The arrangement made them both part-time professors giving them time to raise a family as well as continue with their now split research on intertidal species. Dr. Lubchenco remained at Oregon State University until 2009.
Professional Career =
Dr. Lubchenco accomplished many other things while she was teaching, such as working as a research associate for the Smithsonian Institution from 1978-1984, spending time at la Univerisdad Catlotica in Santiago, Chile in 1986, as well as spending time at the Institute of Oceanography, Academica Sinica in Qingdao, China in for part of 1987. In all aspects of her career, Dr. Lubchenco has always put an emphasis on real-world experimentation and communication between the scientific community and the rest of society. She served as President for the Ecological Society of America from 1992-1993 and in 1997 gave an address in which she outlined a social contract to be established between scientists and the public. In 1998, she founded the Aldo Leopold Leadership Program, which is a training program for ecologists in communicating their research to the media and the policymakers in plain English. The following year, she co-founded COMPASS or the Communication Partnership for Science and Sea, an organization dedicated to educating the policy makers about the oceanic ecology..
Over the course of the next decade, Dr. Lubchenco continued to build bridges of communication between the scientific community and the general public by serving in leadership positions for various groups, both within the scientific community and the American government. She served as president for the American Association for the Advancement of Sciences (AAAS), the International Council for Science, and as a presidential-appointee for the National Science Board. She served as a member on the Pew Oceans Commission, the Joint Oceans Commission Initiative, the Aspen Institute Arctic Commission, and the Council of Advisors for Google Ocean. Dr. Lubchenco is also an elected member The National Academy of Sciences, The American Academy of Arts and Sciences, The American Philosophical Society, The Royal Society, and The Academy of Sciences for the Developing World, Europe and Chile.
Recognitions =
Due to her work in furthering communication between science and the public via the organizations listed above, Dr. Lubchenco has been the recipient of many awards and honors. She has been awarded 14 honorary doctorates and of her countless publications, eight have been recognized as “Science Citation Classics”. In addition to these honors, she has been awarded a MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship, the Heinz Award in the Environment (2002), the Nierenberg Prize for Science in the Public Interest from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography (2003),the Distinguished Service Award from the Society for Conservation Biology (2003), the Environmental Law Institute Award (2004), the Distinguished Scientist Award from the American Institute of Biological Sciences (2004), the American Association for the Advancement of Science’s Award for Public Understanding of Science and Technology (2005), the Blue Planet Prize (2011), as well as being named the “2010 Newsmaker of the Year “ by the scientific journal Nature.
NOAA =
Dr. Lubchenco received the cherry on top of an already jammed packed career when she was appointed the head of the NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) in 2009 by President Barak Obama as a part of his new “Science Team”. The NOAA is the nation’s top science agency for climate, oceans, and atmosphere. It has a staff of 12,800 employees, a budget of $4 billion, and is responsible for predicting changes in the Earth’s environment from the depths of the ocean to the surface of the sun as well as managing and conserving our marine and coastal resources.. Being elected as the undersecretary of commerce for oceans and atmosphere, Dr. Lubchenco is both the first woman and the first marine ecologist to occupy the post, which had also been vacant for fourteen years previous to her appointment. This post is her current focus today and she has been the guiding force for it through disasters such as the BP oil spill. Her current goals as the head of the NOAA include reorienting how the nation responds to environmental issues like rising seas and decreasing fish stocks, to strengthen scientific research and make it more relevant to society, as well as to improve the health of ecosystems and coastal communities.
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Ukrainian-American
Ukrainian Americans are citizens and permanent residents of the United States who have recently emigrated to the United States and are of Ukrainian ancestry. According to U.S. census estimates, in 2006 there were 961,113 Americans of Ukrainian descent representing 0.33% of the American population...
environmental scientist and marine
Marine (ocean)
Marine is an umbrella term. As an adjective it is usually applicable to things relating to the sea or ocean, such as marine biology, marine ecology and marine geology...
ecologist. On March 19, 2009, she was confirmed by the U.S. Senate as the first woman to serve as the administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration , pronounced , like "noah", is a scientific agency within the United States Department of Commerce focused on the conditions of the oceans and the atmosphere...
(NOAA).
While performing duties as head of NOAA, Dr. Lubchenco, The Wayne and Gladys Valley Professor of Marine Biology
Marine biology
Marine biology is the scientific study of organisms in the ocean or other marine or brackish bodies of water. Given that in biology many phyla, families and genera have some species that live in the sea and others that live on land, marine biology classifies species based on the environment rather...
and Oregon State University
Oregon State University
Oregon State University is a coeducational, public research university located in Corvallis, Oregon, United States. The university offers undergraduate, graduate and doctoral degrees and a multitude of research opportunities. There are more than 200 academic degree programs offered through the...
Distinguished Professor of Zoology, has taken a leave of absence from her work at the university. She grew up in Colorado
Colorado
Colorado is a U.S. state that encompasses much of the Rocky Mountains as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains...
, received her undergraduate degree from Colorado College
Colorado College
The Colorado College is a private liberal arts college in Colorado Springs, Colorado, United States, in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. It was founded in 1874 by Thomas Nelson Haskell...
in 1969, received her PhD and taught at Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
.
Lubchenco's research interests include biodiversity
Biodiversity
Biodiversity is the degree of variation of life forms within a given ecosystem, biome, or an entire planet. Biodiversity is a measure of the health of ecosystems. Biodiversity is in part a function of climate. In terrestrial habitats, tropical regions are typically rich whereas polar regions...
, climate change
Climate change
Climate change is a significant and lasting change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns over periods ranging from decades to millions of years. It may be a change in average weather conditions or the distribution of events around that average...
, sustainability science
Sustainability science
Sustainability science has emerged in the 21st century as a new academic discipline. This new field of science was officially introduced with a "Birth Statement" at the World Congress "Challenges of a Changing Earth 2001" in Amsterdam organized by the International Council for Science , the...
, and the state of the ocean
Ocean
An ocean is a major body of saline water, and a principal component of the hydrosphere. Approximately 71% of the Earth's surface is covered by ocean, a continuous body of water that is customarily divided into several principal oceans and smaller seas.More than half of this area is over 3,000...
s. She has received numerous awards, including a MacArthur Fellowship, a Pew Fellowship, eight honorary degrees (including one from Princeton University
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....
), the 8th Annual Heinz Award
Heinz Award
The Heinz Award is an award currently given annually to ten honorees by the Heinz Family Foundation. The Heinz Awards recognize outstanding individuals for their contributions in the five areas of: Arts and Humanities, the Environment, the Human Condition, Public Policy, and Technology, the Economy...
in the Environment (2002), and the Nierenberg Prize
Nierenberg Prize
The Nierenberg Prize for Science in the Public Interest is given annually by the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. It was created through a gift of the family to honor the memory of William Nierenberg...
for Science in the Public Interest from the Scripps Institute of Oceanography (2003). Between 1997 and 1998, she served as president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science
American Association for the Advancement of Science
The American Association for the Advancement of Science is an international non-profit organization with the stated goals of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific responsibility, and supporting scientific education and science outreach for the...
.
Following her confirmation to head NOAA and to serve as Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere
Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere
The Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere is the Administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The Under Secretary oversees the day-to-day functions of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, as well as laying out its strategic and operational...
, Lubchenco declared that science
Science
Science is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe...
would guide the agency and that she expects it to play a role in developing a green economy
Green economy
A green economy is one that results in improved human well-being and social equity, while significantly reducing environmental risks and ecological scarcities - United Nations Environment Programme...
.
Early Life and Education =
Dr. Lubchenco was born on December 4, 1947 in Denver, Colorado as the oldest of six daughters. Her parents were both doctors, but her mother worked part-time to raise her six girls and encourage them to each pursue their own interests. She attended St. Mary’s Academy, a Catholic high school and set the bar high as an athlete, scholar and leader. After winning the top award at her high school, she had her pick of top colleges and universities, but chose to study at Colorado College in the neighboring small town of Colorado Springs. While enrolled in a summer class at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, she discovered a love for biology and found a passion for “invertebrates and research”. She then made the pivotal decision to attend grad school to further study marine science. She graduated with a B.S. in Biology in 1969 and began attending grad school in the fall at the University of Washington . Talk amongst her fellow graduate students convinced Jane to begin work on a thesis which combined evolutionary theory and real-world experimentation, which was the hot idea in ecology at the time that we see carried through the rest of her work. Thus, she began investigating into the use of resources and competition among sea stars. While working on researching her thesis, she met fellow grad student Bruce Menge, who was also doing work on sea stars. Jane acted as a field assistant to Menge as he did his research, an action he reciprocated when she began her s a couple of years later, cementing the bond between them. The two were soon married and Jane graduated with her M.S. in Zoology in 1971 . She then moved to Harvard University to pursue her PhD while her husband worked as a professor in at University of Massachusetts in Boston.
Academic Career =
After obtaining her PhD in 1975, Dr. Lubchenco worked as an assistant professor at Harvard University until 1977, taking some time in 1976 to complete a visiting professorship at the University of the West Indies in Kingston, Jamaica. In 1977, she and her husband moved to Oregon State University in Corvallis, Oregon, where she spent the next thirty years teaching, moving up from assistant professor (1977-1982) to an associate professor (1982-1988) to full professor in 1988. Dr. Lubchenco served as head of the zoology department from 1989-1992. In 1993, she was made a distinguished professor and in 1995 she was given the title of Wayne and Gladys Valley Professor of Marine Biology. That same year she began her teaching relationship with the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand. One of most remarkable aspects of Dr. Lubchenco’s position at Oregon State University was the arrangement worked out between Dr. Lubchenco and her husband and the university in 1977. The arrangement made them both part-time professors giving them time to raise a family as well as continue with their now split research on intertidal species. Dr. Lubchenco remained at Oregon State University until 2009.
Professional Career =
Dr. Lubchenco accomplished many other things while she was teaching, such as working as a research associate for the Smithsonian Institution from 1978-1984, spending time at la Univerisdad Catlotica in Santiago, Chile in 1986, as well as spending time at the Institute of Oceanography, Academica Sinica in Qingdao, China in for part of 1987. In all aspects of her career, Dr. Lubchenco has always put an emphasis on real-world experimentation and communication between the scientific community and the rest of society. She served as President for the Ecological Society of America from 1992-1993 and in 1997 gave an address in which she outlined a social contract to be established between scientists and the public. In 1998, she founded the Aldo Leopold Leadership Program, which is a training program for ecologists in communicating their research to the media and the policymakers in plain English. The following year, she co-founded COMPASS or the Communication Partnership for Science and Sea, an organization dedicated to educating the policy makers about the oceanic ecology..
Over the course of the next decade, Dr. Lubchenco continued to build bridges of communication between the scientific community and the general public by serving in leadership positions for various groups, both within the scientific community and the American government. She served as president for the American Association for the Advancement of Sciences (AAAS), the International Council for Science, and as a presidential-appointee for the National Science Board. She served as a member on the Pew Oceans Commission, the Joint Oceans Commission Initiative, the Aspen Institute Arctic Commission, and the Council of Advisors for Google Ocean. Dr. Lubchenco is also an elected member The National Academy of Sciences, The American Academy of Arts and Sciences, The American Philosophical Society, The Royal Society, and The Academy of Sciences for the Developing World, Europe and Chile.
Recognitions =
Due to her work in furthering communication between science and the public via the organizations listed above, Dr. Lubchenco has been the recipient of many awards and honors. She has been awarded 14 honorary doctorates and of her countless publications, eight have been recognized as “Science Citation Classics”. In addition to these honors, she has been awarded a MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship, the Heinz Award in the Environment (2002), the Nierenberg Prize for Science in the Public Interest from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography (2003),the Distinguished Service Award from the Society for Conservation Biology (2003), the Environmental Law Institute Award (2004), the Distinguished Scientist Award from the American Institute of Biological Sciences (2004), the American Association for the Advancement of Science’s Award for Public Understanding of Science and Technology (2005), the Blue Planet Prize (2011), as well as being named the “2010 Newsmaker of the Year “ by the scientific journal Nature.
NOAA =
Dr. Lubchenco received the cherry on top of an already jammed packed career when she was appointed the head of the NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) in 2009 by President Barak Obama as a part of his new “Science Team”. The NOAA is the nation’s top science agency for climate, oceans, and atmosphere. It has a staff of 12,800 employees, a budget of $4 billion, and is responsible for predicting changes in the Earth’s environment from the depths of the ocean to the surface of the sun as well as managing and conserving our marine and coastal resources.. Being elected as the undersecretary of commerce for oceans and atmosphere, Dr. Lubchenco is both the first woman and the first marine ecologist to occupy the post, which had also been vacant for fourteen years previous to her appointment. This post is her current focus today and she has been the guiding force for it through disasters such as the BP oil spill. Her current goals as the head of the NOAA include reorienting how the nation responds to environmental issues like rising seas and decreasing fish stocks, to strengthen scientific research and make it more relevant to society, as well as to improve the health of ecosystems and coastal communities.
External links
- Dr. Jane Lubchenco Biography at National Oceanic and Atmospheric AdministrationNational Oceanic and Atmospheric AdministrationThe National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration , pronounced , like "noah", is a scientific agency within the United States Department of Commerce focused on the conditions of the oceans and the atmosphere...
- Jane Lubchenco at Oregon State University
- Jane Lubchenco profile at The Heinz Awards
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