Analytics Press
News
March 15, 2004
Jonathan Koomey, author of Turning Numbers into Knowledge, named as an Aldo Leopold Leadership Fellow for 2004
BOSTON – Jonathan Koomey, Author of Turning Numbers into Knowledge and MAP/Ming Visiting Professor of Energy and Environment at Stanford University, is one of twenty outstanding academic environmental scientists from throughout the U.S. and Guam to have been selected as an Aldo Leopold Leadership Fellow for 2004.
Aldo Leopold Leadership Fellowships provide scientists with intensive communications and leadership training to help them communicate scientific information effectively to non-scientific audiences, especially policy makers, the media, business leaders and the public. The Fellows are selected through a competitive application process. Fellows have outstanding scientific qualifications, demonstrated leadership ability and a strong interest in communicating science beyond traditional academic audiences.
"This fellowship will help me further my interest in effective communication of technical information" said Koomey. "Developing successful solutions to the key environmental problems facing humanity in the next century (including global climate change, mass species extinction, resource-based conflicts, and the challenge of economic development for the world's poorest nations) will require scientists to make the implications of their results understandable for policy makers and the public."
The 2004 Fellows represent a broad range of environmental science disciplines, including environmental engineering, wildlife veterinary medicine, tropical forestry, marine ecology and environmental economics.
"We are absolutely thrilled with the 2004 cohort of Leopold Leadership Fellows" said Jane Lubchenco, Distinguished Professor of Zoology at Oregon State University who co-founded the Aldo Leopold Leadership Program and co-chairs the steering committee. "As individuals, each is outstanding in his or her field, and as a group, they provide a wonderful mix of disciplines and potential for new and interesting collaborations. They will learn a lot in the training sessions, but they also have a lot to offer each other and to the Leopold Leadership Program."
The 2004 Fellows join 60 other outstanding environmental scientists who previously received Leopold Leadership Fellowships and participated in the training, including Bill Schlesinger, Dean of the Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences at Duke University, Pamela Matson, Dean of the School of Earth Sciences at Stanford University and Jianguo (Jack) Liu, professor in the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife at Michigan State University. For a complete list of Fellows, including biographical information, visit the website: www.leopoldleadership.org
The scientists previously selected as Leopold Leadership Fellows report that the fellowship training program has greatly enhanced their ability to communicate their scientific work to journalists, policy makers and other non-scientists. Several have become regular sources of scientific information for reporters, and many have written op-ed articles published in local and national newspapers.
"Before (the fellowship training) I was attempting to translate science to the public, particularly environmental policy makers and regulators, but without many tools or even confidence" said Susan Williams, a 2000 Leopold Leadership Fellow who is professor of environmental science and policy and director of the Bodega Marine Laboratory at the University of California Davis. "The Leopold Program made me more effective and provided means to improve policy and media interactions, which have increased dramatically."
The Aldo Leopold Leadership Program was launched in 1998 with the goal of improving the flow of accurate, credible scientific information to policy makers, the media and the public by training outstanding academic environmental scientists to be better communicators of complex scientific information.
"Environmental scientists have valuable knowledge that should be available to citizens and policy makers as they make choices about the future of our planet and our communities. It is vitally important to all of us that scientists be able to provide accurate information in plain language and in the context of everyday life to those who are determining our environmental policies and practices" said Lubchenco.
The program is named for Aldo Leopold, a renowned environmental scientist who communicated his scientific knowledge simply and eloquently. His writings, including his 1949 book, A Sand County Almanac, are credited with infusing the emerging conservation movement with good science and a stewardship ethic.
Applications are now being accepted for the 2005 Leopold Leadership Fellowships. The deadline for applying is April 19, 2004.
For more information about the Aldo Leopold Leadership Program and the new Fellows, visit www.leopoldleadership.org.
Turning Numbers into Knowledge, authored by Jonathan Koomey, Ph.D., is a lively and entertaining guide to making informed professional and personal choices. The book's insights help people beat information overload, hone their decision-making skills, and achieve success in this information-glutted world.
For details on the book Turning Numbers into Knowledge, go to www.numbersintoknowledge.com.
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Jonathan Koomey is MAP/Ming visiting Professor of Energy and Environment at Stanford University, on leave from his job as a Staff Scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, in Berkeley, California. He holds M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the Energy and Resources Group at the University of California at Berkeley, and an A.B. in History of Science from Harvard University.
Koomey is the author or co-author of seven books and more than one hundred and thirty articles and reports. Koomey’s latest book is Turning Numbers into Knowledge: Mastering the Art of Problem Solving, ISBN 0-9706019-0-5, www.numbersintoknowledge.com.
Koomey has appeared on Nova/Frontline, BBC radio, CNBC, All Things Considered, Marketplace, Tech Nation, On the Media, the California Report, KPIX TV (SF), CNET radio, and KQED radio. He has been quoted in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Barron's, The Washington Post, Science, Science News, American Scientist, Dow Jones News Wires, USA Today, SF Chronicle, Oakland Tribune, Interactive Week, Business 2.0, Salon.com, and Network Magazine.
Interviews may be arranged via:
E-mail: JGKoomey@numbersintoknowledge.com
Phone: 510/547-7860
Website: www.numbersintoknowledge.comJonathan G. Koomey, Ph.D.
PO Box 20313
Oakland, CA 94620-0313