Daniel B. Botkin, President of CSE, is Professor Emeritus, Dept. of Ecology, Evolution, and Marine Biology, University of California, Santa Barbara. Botkin is a scientist who studies life from a planetary perspective, a biologist who has helped solve major environmental issues, and a writer about nature. Well-known for his scientific contributions in ecology and environment, he has also worked as a professional journalist and has degrees in physics, biology, and literature. His books and lectures show how our cultural legacy often dominates what we believe to be scientific solutions. He discusses the roles of scientists, businessmen, stakeholders, and government agencies in new approaches to environmental issues.
Botkin is known widely for his books about the idea of nature and the implications of modern science for our ideas about environment. His most influential book, Discordant Harmonies: A New Ecology for the 21st Century (Oxford University Press), is helping change the way the citizens, agencies, and corporations view environmental issues. Within environmental sciences, Botkin is best known for the development of the first successful computer simulation in ecology, a computer model of forest growth that has developed into a subdiscipline in this field, with more than 50 versions in use worldwide. Botkin has also been a pioneer in the study of ecosystems and wilderness. He has directed research on wilderness and natural parks in many parts of the world, from the Serengeti Plains of Africa to the forests of Siberia and the wildernesses of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area of Minnesota and Isle Royale National Park.
