East Carolina University

Department of Biology

www.actionbioscience.org/environment/christian.html

Robert Christian, Ph.D., is a Distinguished Professor of the Thomas Harriot College of Arts and Sciences and Research Distinguished Professor of Biology at East Carolina University. He was President of the Estuarine Research Federation from 2005–2007. His research focuses on coastal ecosystems— particularly salt marshes, estuaries, and coastal lagoons along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts of the USA, and in the Mediterranean. In these various ecosystems, he has studied nutrient cycling—especially the nitrogen and carbon cycles and energy flow.

Professor in Ecology & Environmental Biology

Cornell University

leopoldleadership.stanford.edu/fellows/howarth

Dr. Robert Howarth chairs the International SCOPE Biofuels Project, is President of the Coastal & Estuarine Research Federation, directs the Agrictural Ecosystems Program at Cornell University, and represents the State of New York on the science and technical advisory committee of the Chesapeake Bay Program. Howarth is also the Founding Editor of the journal "Biogeochemistry" and served as Editor-in-Chief from 1983 to 2004.

Howarth's research program is focused broadly on the following topics: the interaction of climate and land-use as regulators of nutrient flows from large watersheds; the effects of biofuels on the environment; deposition of nitrogen gases, particularly near vehicle and agricultural emission sources; human alteraton of global and regional nitrogen and phosphorus cycles; complex biogeochemical feedbacks that occur in estuaries during eutrophication; and the interaction of biotic, physical and biogeochemical factors as controls on nitrogen fixation.
 

South Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve

Coastal Training Program Coordinator

www.oregon.gov/DSL/SSNERR/john.shtml

John Bragg is the Coastal Training Program Coordinator at the South Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve. The Coastal Training Program is a national initiative that provides adult level environmental education to individuals who, in a professional or occupational capacity, have direct responsibility for making decisions regarding activities that affect the coastal zone and its resources. John’s duties include organizing and facilitating training workshops and other events; producing web-based materials, video and still photography, and news articles; and coordinating the production of other educational products.

John's professional background includes work as a news reporter, and news photographer, freelance journalist, science writer, instructor, and farm worker. John is particularly interested in the dynamics of environmental policy and resource management in rural communities, western water policy, and watershed restoration.