This Week >> 1/24/2008
This week, guests on our show dedicate themselves to preserving the Earth's biodiversity. First up: Dr. Elizabeth Losos and Rudy L. Ruggles, Jr.of the Organization for Tropical Studies (OTS), who talk about the Rain Forests in Costa Rica. Guests from the US agency that represents Costa Rica and one of the leading tour operators for that region tell us what's being done to preserve the world's largest ecological area.
Next, Gordon Wiltsie, National Geographic photographer and author of To the Ends of the Earth talks about his travels in the Amazon. And, Wade Hughes, underwater photographer and author of Thirteenth Beach; Diving Adventures 'Round the World talks about marine life and the future of the great monsters of the deep. Mr.Hughes and Mr. Ruggles are both members of the Explorers Club.
Guests
Gordon Wiltsie, from Bozeman, Montana, is an explorer who has climbed, skied and trekked to some of the wildest places on earth, including Antarctica, the Arctic, the Himalaya, the Andes, and elsewhere. He is a creative and prolific expedition photographer, whose work appears regularly in National Geographic and numerous other international magazines. His newest book, To the Ends of the Earth, which includes stories and pictures from his most dramatic adventures was recently published by W.W. Norton and Company.
This book can be found in many bookstores or at his own website, www.alpenimage.com
Wade Hughes began diving as a 12-year-old in southern Australia, in the 1960s. Since then, he has dived extensively in Australia and in salt and fresh water locations in Egypt, Malaysia, Thailand, the Maldives, Great Barrier Reef, Ireland, Truk, Palau, Tonga, Fiji, Iceland, the Great Lakes, Florida, California, Hawaii, Greece, Turkey, Mexico, Gibraltar, Jamaica, the Dutch Antilles, Virgin Islands, Ecuador, and Azores. His underwater photographic art has been exhibited in a number of galleries, including a one-man exhibition commissioned by the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority. He is the author of Thirteenth Beach; Diving Adventures Round the World, he was elected to Membership of The Explorers Club in 2004, and elected a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society in 2005. Wade has been married to his equally adventurous first wife, Robyn, for nearly 30 years. You can email Wade at aussiesabroad@aol.com or view the website promoted to his book here.
Click here to read a different short story by Wade and some notes about it from his own perspective.
Organization for Tropical Studies
Dr. Elizabeth Losos has been the President and CEO of OTS, a consortium of 60+ universities and research institutions, since March 2005. Under her leadership the organization has produced a new strategic vision for the next decade; new academic institutions have joined the consortium, and the organization's research stations in Costa Rica have experienced an increase in facilities and major research equipment as well as in active researchers and research projects. OTS' graduate courses have expanded to include one-time specialty courses as well as traditional courses in tropical biology; the undergraduate program has grown to include scholarships for students under-represented in the sciences and research experiences for Native Americans; and the organization has developed training programs for policy-makers and protected area managers. In addition to its base in Costa Rica, OTS now operates in México, Perú, Brazil, and South Africa.
Prior to joining OTS, Dr. Losos was the Director of the Center for Tropical Forest Science (CTFS) at the Smithsonian Institution and was responsible for overseeing a pan-tropical forest research network of more than 36 forestry research institutions, universities and non-governmental organizations from around the world. The CTFS is currently monitoring more than three million trees of 6,000 species.
While directing the CTFS, Dr. Losos taught three courses for OTS in the mid-1990s that targeted U.S. policy makers and focused on the impact of U.S. trade and foreign policies on natural resources in the tropics. During this period she was also an adjunct faculty member of the School of Environmental Affairs at the University of Maryland.
Prior to leading the CTFS, Dr. Losos held a post-doctoral fellowship in Ecology and Economics with the Wilderness Society in Washington, DC. Dr. Losos received her BA from Harvard University and her MA and Ph.D. from the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Princeton University, where she also received a MPA from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. Her doctoral research focused on seed dispersal and forest succession in Manu National Park in Peru.
Dr. Losos is currently a board member of the Amazon Conservation Association, the Finding Species Foundation, and the Biodiversity Neutral, Inc. She is also the Executive Secretary of the Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation and a member of the management committee for the Biological Dynamics Forest Fragments Project in Manaus, Brazil.
For more information:
The Official Website of the OTS
The Official Website of the National Biodiversity Institute of Costa Rica