William H. Schlesinger

William H. Schlesinger is President of the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies, a private ecological research institute on the grounds of the Cary Arboretum in Millbrook, NY. Completing his A.B. at Dartmouth (1972), and Ph.D. at Cornell (1976), he spent 27 years on the faculty at Duke University, where he retired in 2007 as Dean of the Nicholas School of the Environment. He is the author or coauthor of over 200 scientific papers on subjects of environmental chemistry and global change and the widely-adopted textbook Biogeochemistry: An analysis of global change (Academic Press, 3rd ed with E.S. Bernhardt. 2013). He was elected a member of The National Academy of Sciences in 2003, and was President of the Ecological Society of America for 2003-2004. His past work has taken him to diverse habitats, ranging from Okefenokee Swamp in southern Georgia to the Mojave Desert of California, and three times as a Duke alumni tour guide to Antarctica. His research has been featured on NOVA, CNN, NPR, and on the pages of Discover, National Geographic, the New York Times, and Scientific American. Schlesinger has testified before U.S. House and Senate Committees on a variety of environmental issues, including preservation of desert habitats, global climate change and carbon sequestration. He and his wife, Lisa, live in Millbrook, where they enjoy birdwatching, gourmet cooking, and collecting southwestern art. http://www.caryinstitute.org/people_sci_Schlesinger.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_H._Schlesinger