Carl Safina, Ph.D.Nobel Conference 48

President, Blue Ocean Institute, Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y.

Carl Safina is a prominent ecologist and marine conservationist who in 2003 co-founded Blue Ocean Institute, an environmental organization designed to inspire conservation by using science, art, and literature to build a “sea ethic.” In 1995 he had been a force behind the passage of a new fisheries treaty through the United Nations, and in 1996 the U.S. Congress incorporated some of his ideas in the Sustainable Fisheries Act, which required the rebuilding of marine-life populations depleted by fishing.

After earning a B.A. in environmental science from the State University of New York (SUNY) at Purchase (1977), Safina worked briefly with birds of prey for the nonprofit Peregrine Fund and then for the National Audubon Society, becoming vice president for ocean conservation. Enrolling at Rutgers University, New Brunswick, N.J., he received M.S. (1981) and Ph.D. (1987) degrees. Safina’s first book, Song for the Blue Ocean (1998), won rave reviews and several awards. In 2000 he received a “genius grant” from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.