David Western
David Western, founding executive director of African Conservation Centre in Kenya, will receive the 2010 World Ecology Award from the Whitney R. Harris World Ecology Center at the University of Missouri–St. Louis.
The award will be presented during a gala dinner at 6:30 p.m. May 7 at the Missouri Botanical Garden, 4344 Shaw Blvd., St. Louis, 63110.
The World Ecology Award is presented to an eminent individual who has raised public awareness about global ecology and made significant contributions to environmental protection and biodiversity conservation. Past recipients include Jane Goodall, Harrison Ford, Richard Leakey, Teresa Heinz, Ted Turner, Peter Raven, Jacques Cousteau and John Denver.
Raised in Tanzania and now a Kenyan citizen, Western has spent more than 37 years engaged in research in Kenya studying the interactions between livestock, wildlife and humans, with the aim of developing conservation strategies applicable at an ecosystem scale. As former director of Kenya Wildlife Service and conservation director for Wildlife Conservation Society, Western has been active in many areas of conservation, including community-based conservation, international programs, conservation planning, ecotourism, training, directing governmental and non-governmental organizations, and public education.
Western’s publications include “Conservation for the Twenty-first Century,” “Natural Connections: Perspectives in Community-based Conservation,” and “In the Dust of Kilimanjaro.”
He earned his bachelor’s degree from Leicester University in England and his doctorate from the University of Nairobi in Kenya. He is an adjunct professor in biology at the University of California, San Diego and the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis.
The Whitney R. Harris World Ecology Center has become, through its partnerships with the Missouri Botanical Garden and the Saint Louis Zoo, the premier institution for graduate studies in tropical ecology and biodiversity conservation. With graduate students from more than 20 countries working throughout the tropics, the center supports the largest group of tropical biologists in the world.
Call 314-516-5219 to make a reservation for the event and find more information.
More about David Western: http://biology.ucsd.edu/faculty/western.html
More about the World Ecology Center: http://hwec.umsl.edu/
