Sylvia Earle: The Quest for Sustainable Seas
Spring 2013
On Thursday, March 21, 2013, the College of Natural Resources hosted Sylvia Earle, one of the world's most influential ambassadors for the ocean. Earle is a National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence, former chief scientist of NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration), founder of the Mission Blue Foundation, a TED Prize winner, and was named TIME magazine's first Hero of the Planet. Learn how actions we take in the next 10 years to support the ocean will matter more than what we do in the next 100 hundred years.
Contact Information
Sasha Keller
Event Coordinator
510-643-1051
About Sylvia Earle
World-renowned oceanographer Sylvia Earle, called "Her Deepness" by the New Yorker and the New York Times, "Living Legend" by the Library of Congress, and TIME magazine's first "Hero for the Planet," is an explorer, author, and lecturer with experience as a field research scientist. Earle is an Explorer-in-Residence at the National Geographic Society, founder of the Mission Blue Foundation, Chair of the Advisory Council for the Harte Research Institute and the Marine Science and Technology Foundation, former Chief Scientist of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and winner of a 2009 TED prize. Earle has pioneered research on marine ecosystems and has led more than 100 expeditions totaling more than 7,000 hours underwater.
"I was swept off my feet by a wave when I was three and have been in love with the sea ever since," Earle said. "Even as a child I was lured into the sea by the creatures who lived there: horseshoe crabs on the New Jersey beaches; starfish and sea urchins in the Florida Keys; and everywhere strange and wonderful forms of life that occur only underwater. It was and is irresistible."
Earle is author of more than 175 scientific and popular publications, including a The World Is Blue: How Our Fate and the Ocean's Are One (2009) and Ocean: An Illustrated Atlas (2008). Her research places special emphasis on marine plants and ecosystems, and the development of technology for access and research in the deep sea.
Earle played a key role in bringing about increased support for U.S. National Marine Sanctuaries during the Clinton administration in 1999, and later helped inspire George W. Bush to designate vast tracts of American-controlled Pacific Ocean islands, reefs, surface waters, and sea floor as marine national monuments, limiting fishing, mining, and oil exploration. Today, she is leading a global effort to develop networks of protected areas in the sea—“Hope Spots”—large enough to protect the blue heart of the planet.
Earle has a bachelor's degree from Florida State University and a master's degree and doctorate from Duke University as well as numerous honorary doctorate degrees. She lives in Oakland, California.
About the Albright Lecture Series
This series was established at the University of California in 1959. A permanent endowment of the lectureship was provided by contributions from hundreds of generous friends and admirers of Albright. This lectureship enables the University to honor him as one of its distinguished graduates, and also to stimulate for this and future generations wide general interest in the preservation of the natural beauty of America.
Born in Bishop, California, in 1890, Horace Albright was a member of the class of 1912 at the University of California, devoted alumnus, and an honorary LL.D. (1961). He joined the Department of the Interior in 1913 as an assistant to the then Secretary Franklin K. Lane. In 1916 he helped create the National Park Service with Stephen Mather. He was the first civilian Superintendent of the Yellowstone National Park from 1919 until 1929 when he was appointed the second Director of the National Park Service. He served as Director until 1933 when he left to join the U.S. Potash Company from which he retired as president in 1956.
During the time he served as a corporate executive Mr. Albright maintained an active role in the conservation of America’s resources, serving as a member of the National Park System’s Advisory Board, the Council of the Save-the- Redwoods League, and the advisory council of the National Outdoors Resources Review Committee. Thus, Mr. Albright’s career encompassed both the preservation and utilization of natural resources. His years of service as Chair of the Board of Directors of Resources for the Future, Inc., typify his concern with the conservation of resources. The Albright lectures are dedicated to that end.
The nation’s highest civilian award, the Medal of Freedom, was awarded to Mr. Albright by President Carter on the 64th Anniversary of the National Park Service. President Carter announced the award in August of 1980, and the medal was presented on December 8 by Assistant Secretary of the Interior, Robert L. Herbst, in a ceremony at Van Nuys, California. Horace Albright died on March 2, 1987. His lifelong dedication to conservation was exemplified by the effort in the last year of his life to assist the University of California in acquiring land for the Natural Reserve System.
