Press Room

Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson is a marine biologist and founder and CEO of Ocean Collectiv, a strategy consulting firm for conservation solutions. She holds appointments as an adjunct professor at New York University and a science scholar at Pioneer Works. As executive director of the Waitt Institute, Ayana co-founded the Blue Halo Initiative and led the Caribbean’s first successful island-wide ocean zoning effort. Previously, she worked on ocean policy at the EPA and NOAA, and was a leader of the March for Science. Ayana earned a BA from Harvard University in environmental science and public policy, and a Ph.D. from Scripps Institution of Oceanography in marine biology. She writes and tweets (@ayanaeliza) about how we can use the ocean without using it up, and is a passionate advocate for coastal communities.

Called the “real life Lorax” by National Geographic and “Einstein of the treetops” by Wall Street Journal, Lowman works globally on tree biology and forest conservation. She is an author, explorer, scientist, arbornaut (translation: treetop explorer!), mom, and change-agent for conservation. She has developed a creative toolkit for whole-forest exploration, including ropes and harnesses, canopy walkways, hot-air balloons, cherry pickers, and construction cranes. Her research on forest conservation links science to sustainability practices both locally and globally. One of her signature projects is designing canopy walkways to encourage ecotourism for local income instead of logging. Her current priorities include creating a UNESCO Man and the Biosphere Reserve nomination in Malaysian rain forests and partnering with Coptic priests in Ethiopia to save their last 5% remaining forests

Robin Bell received her undergraduate degree in geology from Middlebury College in Vermont and her PhD in geophysics from Columbia University in 1989. Since completing her doctorate she has lead research Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory on ice sheets, tectonics, rivers and mid-ocean ridges. Currently, Bell is a PGI Lamont Research Professor at Columbia University and directs research programs in Antarctica, Greenland, and has developed technology to monitor our changing planet. Bell has coordinated ten major aero-geophysical expeditions to Antarctica and Greenland, studying what makes ice sheets collapse. As of December 2018, Dr. Bell is the president of AGU.

Hopi E. Hoekstra is an integrative biologist. Her work brings an evolutionary perspective to the fields of genetics, development and neuroscience to understand how and why organisms vary in nature. She is a Harvard College Professor, the Curator of Mammals at the Museum of Comparative Zoology, an Institute Member at The Broad Institute and an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. She has won numerous honors and awards, most recently the Richard Lounsbery Medal. She also serves on several scientific advisory and editorial boards, and is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National Academy of Sciences and the American Philosophical Society.

Professor of Law & Philosophy, Director, Duke Initiative for Science & Society. Nita Farahany is a leading scholar on the ethical, legal, and social implications of emerging technologies. She is the Founding Director of the Duke Initiative for Science & Society. She served as a Presidential appointee on the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues from 2010-2017. Farahany is a member of the Neuroethics Working Group at the National Institute of Health, of the President’s Research Council of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR), and the Global Precision Medicine Council at the World Economic Forum. She also serves on various ethics and scientific advisory boards for major corporations.

Research Professor at Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico. Combines science, engineering, philosophy and art to understand, build, think about, and create complex systems.

Vinton G. Cerf
Vice President and Chief Internet Evangelist
Google

At Google, Vint Cerf contributes to global policy development and continued spread of the Internet. Widely known as one of the "Fathers of the Internet," Cerf is the co-designer of the TCP/IP protocols and the architecture of the Internet.   He has served in executive positions at the Internet Society, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, the American Registry for Internet Numbers, MCI, the Corporation for National Research Initiatives and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and on the faculty of Stanford University.

Vint Cerf sits on US National Science Board and is a Visiting Scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Cerf is a Foreign Member of the Royal Society and Swedish Academy of Engineering, Fellow of the IEEE, ACM, American Association for the Advancement of Science, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, British Computer Society, Worshipful Company of Information Technologists, Worshipful Company of Stationers and is a member of the National Academy of Engineering.

Cerf is a recipient of numerous awards and commendations in connection with his work on the Internet, including the US Presidential Medal of Freedom, US National Medal of Technology, the Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering, the Prince of Asturias Award, the Japan Prize, the Charles Stark Draper award, the ACM Turing Award, the Legion d’Honneur and 29 honorary degrees.

Dr. Rita R. Colwell is Distinguished University Professor at the University of Maryland, College Park and Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health and Chairman and Chief Science Officer, CosmosID, Inc.  Her interests are focused on genomics, biodiversity, and molecular microbial systematics and ecology.  Dr. Colwell is an honorary member of the microbiological societies of the UK, Australia, France, Israel, Bangladesh, India and the U.S. Dr. Colwell served as the 11th Director of the National Science Foundation from 1998 to 2004.  She has authored/co-authored 19 books and over 800 scientific publications.  She is a member of the National Academy of Science and has been awarded the Stockholm Water Prize, Order of the Rising Sun, Japan, and the US National Medal of Science.