Thomas Lovejoy, in memoriam

Thomas E. Lovejoy (1941-2021) served on the IIC Advisory Board from the Institute's founding until his passing in 2021. He was an innovative and accomplished conservation biologist whose seminal ideas have formed and strengthened the field of conservation biology and have advanced global conservation. Among his many accomplishments, he was responsible for coining the term “biological diversity”, which has shaped how we think about conservation. Thomas was the founder and president of the Amazon Biodiversity Center and the Biological Dynamics of Forest Fragments Project, a Professor in the Environmental Science and Policy Department at George Mason University, and a Senior Fellow at the United Nations Foundation. He was the Biodiversity Chair at the Heinz Center for Science, Economics and the Environment and he chaired the Scientific and Technical Panel for the Global Environment Facility, which provides funding for the international environmental conventions. Thomas also served as the Senior Advisor to the President of the United Nations Foundation, as the Chief Biodiversity Advisor to the World Bank and Lead Specialist for the Environment for the Latin American region, as the Assistant Secretary for Environmental and External Affairs for the Smithsonian Institution, and as Executive Vice President of World Wildlife Fund-US. He served on advisory councils in the Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and Clinton administrations. His accolades include the Tyler Prize (2002), the BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in the Ecology and Conservation Biology Category (2009), and the Blue Planet Prize (2012). He earned his B.S. and Ph.D. from Yale University and serves as a mentor to students, conservation practitioners, and colleagues in the conservation field.