Science During Crisis: Scenario-Building during the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill

Speaker:
Dr. Gary Machlis

Speaker Title:
Science Advisor to the Director, National Park Service and Co-Leader, Department of the Interior Strategic Sciences Group

Event Description:

First activated during the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill, the DOI Strategic Sciences Group provided interdisciplinary science-based scenarios of the spill and its consequences  to decision makers. The seminar will discuss the application of science during crises, the scenario-building for the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the recent establishment of the Strategic Sciences Group to prepare for future environmental crises.

Dr. Machlis received his bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of Washington in
Seattle, and his Ph.D. in human ecology from Yale. He has written numerous books and scientific papers on issues of conservation, including The State of the World's Parks (1985), the
first systematic study of threats to protected areas around the world. He is currently at work on
his next co-authored book, The Structure and Dynamics of Human Ecosystems, to be published
by Yale University Press in 2012. His research has been published in journals as varied as
Bioscience, Climatic Change, Conservation Biology, Society and Natural Resources, and
Science.

At the University of Idaho, Dr. Machlis has taught courses in conservation, human ecology and
environmental science policy. Dr. Machlis has received the Burlington Northern Award (1994)
and University Teaching Excellence Award (1993), the University of Idaho's highest recognitions for teaching, as well as an education grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to combine art, ecology and architecture in innovative ways for students. Dr. Machlis has conducted studies in over 130 US National Parks as diverse as Everglades, the Statue of Liberty, and Yellowstone. In 1996, his research program received a Hammer Award from Vice President Gore for its role in improving efficiency in government. From 1997-99, he served on the Pacific Northwest Regional Council of the President's Commission on Sustainable Development.

Dr. Machlis has been a leader in collaborative higher education, and serves as an advisor to the
American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) National Committee on
Opportunities for Women and Minorities in Science. He was instrumental in the development of
the nation's Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Units (CESU) Network, which includes 13 federal
agencies and over 200 universities, and served as its National Coordinator from 1998-2006. For
this work, Dr. Machlis was a recipient of the Department of the Interior's 2000 Conservation
Service Award, one of the highest awards of the Department granted to private citizens.

Dr. Machlis is active in international conservation, and is a member of the IUCN's Commission
on National Parks and Protected Areas. He worked in China in 1981 and again in 1986-87 on
the Giant Panda Project for the World Wildlife Fund, and has conducted research in the
Galápagos Islands, the national parks of Kenya, and in Eastern Europe. Dr. Machlis helped
establish and directed the National Parks Science Scholars Program, with over $8 million in
scholarships to students throughout the Americas. In 2007, he received the Special
Achievement Award from the George Wright Society, the professional society for scientists and
resource managers working in protected areas. His current research activities include applying
human ecology to conserving national parks, the environmental impacts of warfare and its
resulting humanitarian crises, restoration of the Gulf of Mexico following the 2010 oil spill, and
advancing science capacity in Haiti after its devastating earthquake. Recently, he was
appointed by Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar to co-lead the Department’s Strategic
Sciences Group, which has responsibility to conduct interdisciplinary science-based
assessments during national environmental crises. In 2010, Dr. Machlis was elected as a Fellow
of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Sponsors:
Institute of the Environment
School of Natural Resources and the Environment