Yale Bulletin and Calendar

September 22, 2006|Volume 35, Number 3

Lisa Curran (right) says that winning a MacArthur Fellowship is "like winning the lottery after 20 years of 'Survivor' in Borneo." She is pictured here with former F&ES graduate student Krithi Karanthat.

F&ES professor wins MacArthur Fellowship

Lisa Curran, professor of tropical ecology and director of the Tropical Resources Institute at the School of Forestry & Environmental Studies (F&ES), has been awarded a five-year John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Fellowship.

In announcing the award, the MacArthur Foundation said: "Through diplomatic skill, cultural sensitivity and rigorous scientific acumen, Lisa Curran synthesizes concepts from the natural and social sciences to forge new, practical solutions for sustainable natural resource extraction and development. ... By developing consensus and fostering communication between diverse stakeholders, she is substantially increasing protection efforts in endangered regions."

Curran has focused her research on the forests of Borneo and the ecology of its most economically important family of tropical timber, Philippine mahogany. She has worked to devise new strategies to address deforestation and its devastating environmental consequences. Curran and her research team study the structure and dynamics of tropical forests using satellite remote sensing, field ecology, ground-based surveys and analysis to learn how the environment is altered by human activities and to improve the management of these forests by integrating scientific knowledge with the sociological, political and economic realities on the ground. She has been instrumental in the establishment of national parks in Indonesia and has worked to counter illegal logging and the corruption that allowed it to take place.

Like all MacArthur Fellows, the award came as a total surprise to Curran, who says she was delighted by the news. "It's like winning the lottery after 20 years of 'Survivor' in Borneo," she quipped. "Actually, this has been a tremendous team effort. I've worked with some of my Indonesian colleagues for 18 years. I'm part of all the people I've met: the villagers, the loggers, the scientists and the students -- both from the U.S. and Indonesia.

"I've had an unusual career trajectory," Curran adds. "I tend to be a problem solver, which requires me to think outside the box. I've had to use creative ways to acquire the information I've needed to address the issues in this emerging new field, sustainability science. I understand the needs of the activist seeking change, but fundamentally I am a scientist, seeking knowledge. My research is collaborative and interdisciplinary. I provide sound science so Indonesians can address these complicated issues. I provide training and information for them."

After graduating from Harvard University with an A.B. in 1984, Curran went to Indonesian Borneo to continue the field studies she had begun as an undergraduate. She remained there for most of the next eight years, living in logging camps and seeing first-hand how the tropical forests were being used and abused. Borneo, the third-largest island in the world, is divided into four political regions: Kalimantan belongs to Indonesia; the remaining regions are part of Malaysia and Brunei.

Curran returned to the U.S. to complete her Ph.D. from Princeton in 1994, after which she was a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard and an assistant professor at the University of Michigan. She joined the Yale faculty as an associate professor in 2001 and was promoted to professor with tenure in 2006.

Until recently, Curran has spent three to six months of the year in the field, hiking for miles through peat marshes and leech-infested swamps, drinking from springs and camping under a tarp in order to study the tropical ecosystem and the impact of illegal logging and agro-business.

There were times her team was threatened and, she says, "I had a price on my head. It's a cowboy culture out there." For a few years, the situation was so dangerous in Indonesia that she shifted her studies to the Amazon rainforest. After Indonesia got its first democratically elected president in October 2004, she was able to resume work in the Kalimantan forest. She still travels to the field camp, training teams who stay on site year-round, but now she goes primarily during academic breaks.

TRI, the Tropical Resources Institute that Curran heads, is an interdisciplinary, non-degree-granting program within F&ES. TRI supports student research projects aimed at practical solutions to conservation and management of resources in the tropics.

Curran is one of 25 newly named MacArthur Fellows. Others include a developmental biologist, sculptor, country doctor, jazz violinist and deep-sea explorer. All were selected for their creativity, originality and potential to make important contributions in the future. The recipients will each receive $500,000 in unconditional support over the next five years.

The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation is a private, independent grant-making institution dedicated to helping groups and individuals foster lasting improvement in the human condition. For more information, visit www.macfound.org.

T H I SW E E K ' SS T O R I E S

Project will make select Yale College courses available to all on Internet

F&ES professor wins MacArthur Fellowship

Newly endowed R.W.B. Lewis Directorship . . .

Center to focus on the study of antisemitism

Yale Library donates computers to hurricane-damaged university

David LaVan chosen to take part in 'Frontiers of Engineering'

New Republic editor visits as Poynter Fellow

Conference to explore frontier violence in American history, culture

Sports columnist Christine Brennan is this year's first Chubb Fellow

Yale Philharmonia to present three concerts at the Shubert

JE exhibit features photographer's portraits of gay and lesbian authors

'This Old Stuff' and a treasure hunt are highlights of open house

Circumcision advocacy programs reduce incidence of HIV, report shows

Geologist honored for a second time with GSA Award for his research

Conference examines the work of German political theorist . . .

Two assistant professors win awards for environmental health research

Five alumni are honored with the Yale Medal . . .

Forum explored the topic of 'Biodiversity and Human Health'

Yale Books in Brief

Campus Notes