Passion for Science
Taking water samples from the North Pacific Ocean.
Paul Falkowski "exemplifies what people mean when they use the word interdisciplinary, except instead of just talking about it, Paul actually does it. His work crosses the boundaries of all the normal silos of scientific disciplines and reaches actually into the social sciences, as well." The words of Douglas Greenberg, executive dean of the Rutgers School of Arts and Sciences (SAS), as he introduced his friend and colleague Paul Falkowski in a Distinguished Faculty Talk on campus.
Falkowski is a member of the Rutgers Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences of the School of Arts and Sciences and the Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences at the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences. But, as Greenberg noted, he could easily be appointed to several different departments in the sciences at Rutgers. Such is the scope of his work.
An internationally renowned biological oceanographer, Falkowski is a Board of Governors Professor of geological and marine sciences and director of the Rutgers Energy Institute. He studies the ocean's role in biogeochemical cycles and leads Rutgers' environmental biophysics and molecular ecology program. In particular, he has been recognized for his contributions to the understanding of the photosynthesis and evolution of marine phytoplankton, and of the ocean's role in biogeochemical cycles.
His most recent award, among many honors, is the International Ecology Institute's 2010 Excellence in Ecology Prize, given to an ecologist distinguished by outstanding and sustained scientific achievements.
Paul Falkowski receiving the 2010 Excellence in Ecology Prize from Prof. Otto Kinne, founder of the International Ecology Institute
"I am extremely honored to have received this prize--and thereby be in the company of such incredible giants of ecology as Tom Fenchel, E. O. Wilson, Hal Mooney, Bo Jorgensen, Ramon Margelef, and Paul Ehrlich," said Falkowski.
He travelled to Oldendorf, Germany in August to receive his prize, which carries with it a prize of Euro 6000 and requires the winner to serve science and society by authoring a book to be published in the series "Excellence in Ecology." The tentative working title of Falkowski's book is Inheriting the Earth: The Imperative for Understanding How Earth's Systems Operate.
Falkowski's work and his connections span the globe, as is evidenced even by the colleagues and friends he entices to come to Rutgers to serve as speakers in the Executive Dean Distinguished Lecture Series. British author and lecturer, Nick Lane Ph.D., honorary reader at University College, London, travelled to talk at Rutgers in the fall of 2009 on a wave of five-star reviews for his latest book, Life Ascending: The Ten Great Inventions of Evolution. In October 2010, Dr. Pierre Joliot, the grandson of Madame Curie, comes to campus on the invitation of Falkowski, to host a conversation among scientists on "The Role of Science in Society." Such is the company he keeps.
Distinguished Faculty Talk
Falkowski came to Rutgers in 1998 following a career that spanned teaching and research in places as far flung as Hawaii, Japan, the United Kingdom, and Israel, and various institutions in the U.S., including Brookhaven National Laboratory and SUNY Stony Brook. He is a New York native, after all, born and raised in the New York City.
He is distinguished by membership in both the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Sciences (NAS). He was elected to serve a three-year term on the Governing Council of NAS this spring and is committed to being a public advocate for science and an advocate among scientists for the public.
"Recently, there has been considerable public debate about whether scientists are framing the questions about climate change with integrity, and that concerns me a lot," Falkowski said of his election. "I want to do what I can to sustain the public's faith in science as one of the most credible aspects of our lives. We're citizens, as well as scientists."
Passionate about science, Falkowski is equally passionate about making science accessible and easy to communicate to mainstream audiences.
