Thomas Lovejoy

Thomas Eugene Lovejoy III (1941-2021) was a transformative figure in conservation biology who served as Senior Fellow at the United Nations Foundation and University Professor at George Mason University. His groundbreaking career spanned over five decades, beginning with his early work in the Brazilian Amazon in 1965. He coined the term "biological diversity" in 1980 and developed innovative conservation mechanisms like debt-for-nature swaps. His most significant contribution was founding the Biological Dynamics of Forest Fragments Project in Brazil in 1979, which became the world's largest landscape ecology experiment. Lovejoy held influential positions across multiple administrations, serving as biodiversity advisor to the World Bank, science envoy under Presidents Obama and Biden, and on environmental councils during the Reagan, Bush, and Clinton administrations. His academic credentials included a B.S. and Ph.D. in Biology from Yale University. As founder of the Amazon Biodiversity Center and creator of the public television series "Nature," he received numerous accolades including the Blue Planet Prize, the Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement, and induction into the National Academy of Sciences. His research yielded over 796 scientific publications, and his work was instrumental in establishing conservation biology as a distinct field. Lovejoy passed away on December 25, 2021, leaving an enduring legacy in global conservation and climate change science.