Mark Nelson, Ph.D., is an ecosystem
engineer and researcher, and one of
the original “Biospherians.” He is
Chairman, CEO, and a founding director
of the Institute of Ecotechnics, a U.K.
nonprofit organization consulting on
several demonstration projects working
in challenging biomes around the world.
He is also Vice Chairman of Global
Ecotechnics Corp..and consults on
wastewater reuse and recycling using
Wastewater Gardens® subsurface-flow
constructed wetlands.
Dr. Nelson was a member of the
eight-person crew inside Biosphere 2,
the 3.15 acre materially-closed facility
near Tucson, Arizona, during the
first two-year closure experiment from
1991-1993. He has worked for several
decades in closed ecological system
research, ecological engineering, the
restoration of damaged ecosystems,
desert agriculture and orchards and
wastewater recycling.
He holds a Ph.D. in Environmental
Engineering Sciences from the University
of Florida; an M.S. from the School of
Renewable Natural Resources, University
of Arizona; and a B.A. in Philosophy and
Pre-Med Sciences from Dartmouth College.
Mark’s Wastewater Gardens projects have
taken him to the coast of Yucatan,
Mexico; the high desert grassland
south of Santa Fe, New Mexico;
the semi-arid tropical savannah of
West Australia; the resorts of Bali;
and most recently, the deserts of Iraq.
