DURHAM, N.C. – Tropical biologist Thomas Lovejoy, science advisor to three U.S. presidents and co-founder of the modern field of conservation biology, will present the 2009 Oosting Memorial Lecture, at 2 p.m. April 17 at 51’s Nicholas School of the Environment.

Lovejoy’s lecture, which is free and open to the public, will be held in Love Auditorium in the Levine Science Research Center on 51’s West Campus. A reception will follow.

Widely cited for his seminal research on biodiversity in the Amazon rainforests of Brazil, Lovejoy is one of the world’s most influential environmental scientists. He became the first recipient of the newly created Biodiversity Chair at the H. John Heinz III Center for Science, Economics and the Environment in August 2008.  Prior to that, he served as president of the Heinz Center, chief biodiversity advisor at the World Bank, and lead specialist for environment for Latin America and the Caribbean and senior advisor to the president of the United Nations Foundation.

He also has served as assistant secretary and counselor to the secretary at the Smithsonian Institution, science advisor to the U.S. Secretary of the Interior, and executive vice president of the World Wildlife Fund-U.S. He served on science and environmental councils or committees in the Reagan, Bush and Clinton administrations.

In 2001, Lovejoy was awarded the prestigious Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement in recognition of his service to the science and policy worlds, and his groundbreaking work as a tropical biologist.

Lovejoy played a central role in the development of the field of conservation biology by initiating, with B.A. Wilcox, the First International Conference on Research in Conservation Biology, in June 1978. The proceedings from that historic conference introduced the terms conservation biology and biological diversity to the scientific community. Among other firsts in his long career: He created the popular public television series, Nature; originated the concept of “debt for nature swaps” in which environmental groups purchase foreign debt and convert it at face value to purchase and protect biologically sensitive tracts of land; and conceived the Minimum Critical Size of Ecosystems Project (also known as the Biological Dynamics of Forest Fragments Project), which is designed to define the minimum size for rainforest reserves and national parks in the tropics.