Stuart Pimm
Encyclopedia
Stuart Pimm is an American-British biologist and theoretical ecologist specializing in scientific research of 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...

 and conservation biology
Conservation biology
Conservation biology is the scientific study of the nature and status of Earth's biodiversity with the aim of protecting species, their habitats, and ecosystems from excessive rates of extinction...

.

Professional career

Pimm is currently Doris Duke Chair of Conservation Ecology in the Nicholas School of the Environment at Duke University
Duke University
Duke University is a private research university located in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present day town of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco industrialist James B...

, Durham
Durham
Durham is a city in north east England. It is within the County Durham local government district, and is the county town of the larger ceremonial county...

, North Carolina
North Carolina
North Carolina is a state located in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties. Its capital is Raleigh, and its largest city is Charlotte...

. He is an acknowledged authority in the field of conservation biology
Conservation biology
Conservation biology is the scientific study of the nature and status of Earth's biodiversity with the aim of protecting species, their habitats, and ecosystems from excessive rates of extinction...

, recognized with several awards including the Heineken Prize and the Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement
Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement
The Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement is an award for environmental science, environmental health and energy. Tyler Laureates receive a $200,000 annual prize and a gold medallion...

. Along with other theoretical ecologists, including Sir Robert May
Robert May, Baron May of Oxford
Robert McCredie May, Baron May of Oxford, OM, AC, PRS is an Australian scientist who has been Chief Scientific Adviser to the UK Government, President of the Royal Society, and a Professor at Sydney and Princeton. He now holds joint professorships at Oxford, and Imperial College London...

, Pimm examined the mathematical properties of food web
Food web
A food web depicts feeding connections in an ecological community. Ecologists can broadly lump all life forms into one of two categories called trophic levels: 1) the autotrophs, and 2) the heterotrophs...

s. Their analysis indicated that complex food webs should be less stable than simple food webs.

Pimm is a prolific writer. He has published more than 100 peer-reviewed scientific articles, including several in the journal Nature
Nature
Nature, in the broadest sense, is equivalent to the natural world, physical world, or material world. "Nature" refers to the phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general...

. His book, A Scientist Audits the Earth was favorably reviewed and he has published articles in popular science publications such as Scientific American
Scientific American
Scientific American is a popular science magazine. It is notable for its long history of presenting science monthly to an educated but not necessarily scientific public, through its careful attention to the clarity of its text as well as the quality of its specially commissioned color graphics...

. He is a regular contributor to the National Geographic website blog.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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