VilionD. Graham Burnett, Ph.D. D. Graham Burnett is Associate Professor of History at Princeton University. His interests include the history of natural history and the sciences of the earth and the sea from the 17th through the 20th centuries, including cartography, navigation, and hydrography. His recent research has examined the role of the geographical sciences in European colonialism. He has also worked on Charles Darwin, the history of exploration, and early modern optics. Dr. Burnett is currently working on a book on cetaceans and cetology (the study of whales and dolphins) in the 19th and 20th centuries. He has recently published Trying Leviathan, a close historical analysis of an 18th century legal case, in which the court decided whether a whale should be considered a fish. In connection with his research on cetology, he organized Lives of the Sea: A Symposium on the History of Marine Life, a 2005 interdisciplinary conference featuring biologists, fisheries scientists, and historians who work on historical population data for marine species. Further information on Graham Burnett and his work is available here. |
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Aaron E. Hirsh, Ph.D. Aaron E. Hirsh is currently Director of The Vermilion Sea Institute. His scientific research uses theoretical and computational tools to investigate basic questions about the evolutionary process. Often, these questions are examined at the molecular level, where they may be uniquely accessible on account of the detailed record of evolutionary history that is embedded in organisms’ genomes. Other areas of research include theoretical ecology, epidemiology, and fisheries management. Dr. Hirsh was a founder of the biotechnology company InterCell, and currently serves on the board of Roberts & Co. Scientific Publishers. During the past five years, Dr. Hirsh has turned his attention to writing for a broader audience. His essays on science and the environment have appeared in literary journals and in The Best American Science Writing. He is currently working on a literary account of travel and science in the Vermilion Sea. Further information on Aaron Hirsh and his work is available here.
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Yan Linhart, Ph.D. Yan Linhart is Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at The University of Colorado, Boulder. Dr. Linhart’s scientific research explores the dynamics of evolutionary change in plants, a broad area that is examined in three particular arenas: field studies on the evolutionary consequences of plant-animal interactions; long-term studies of the population dynamics and evolution of forest trees; and theoretical as well as empirical studies of the factors that cause genetic differentiation of populations. Dr. Linhart teaches courses on genetics and host-parasite interactions, as well as fundamentals of evolution. He has a background in forestry, and he his research on trees has taken place in the Neotropics, in Northern California, and in Colorado. He has also taught field courses in all of these locations. Further information on Yan Linhart and his work is available here. |
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Joshua Maximon, J.D. Joshua Maximon is a lawyer in the US and the UK. In addition to his legal practice centered in Boulder, Colorado, Mr. Maximon pursues a scholarly interest in issues of international environmental law. Specifically, he writes on environmental treaties between The United States and Mexico, how they are structured and managed, and how they affect resource management in and around The Gulf of California. |
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Carl Palmer, MBA Carl Palmer is Managing Director and co-founder of Beartooth Capital, a private equity fund that generates strong financial returns for investors while achieving real conservation results. Beartooth works in partnership with leading conservation groups to find, finance, improve and protect ecologically-important ranchland in the western United States. Prior to Beartooth Carl pursued a similar mission as President & CEO of Greenbridges, a conservation real estate investment company he co-founded while at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. Prior to Stanford, Carl was Executive Director of the Ogden Nature Center, an environmental education center and land trust with two wildlife sanctuaries on the Wasatch Front in Utah. Carl also worked at the Teton Science Schools (TSS) in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, working with Grand Teton National Park to launch the Murie Center, a nonprofit dedicated to building on the conservation legacy of Mardie, Olaus and Adolph Murie, some of our nation's foremost conservation leaders. |
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Stephen Porder, Ph.D. Stephen Porder is Assistant Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Brown University. He is a biogeochemist, which means that he studies the interaction among organisms, soils, air and water to understand how the earth system works. His particular area of expertise is in tropical ecosystems, where he combines a geologic understanding of the processes that shape landscapes with an exploration of the biological systems that inhabit those landscapes. He teaches an introduction to environmental science, biogeochemistry, a seminar on ecological changes through geological time, and a seminar on science and policy. He has had a peripatetic academic career, moving from history to geology, into secondary education, and then back into academia, where he settled in his current area of expertise, biogeochemistry. In VSI’s Baja course, he lectures on a variety of topics: biogeochemistry of the Gulf of California and the Baja peninsula; biological oceanography; and ecosystem ecology. Further information on Dr. Porder and his work is available here. |
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Veronica H. Volny, Ph.D. Veronica H. Volny coordinates and leads VSI’s courses at The Vermilion Sea Field Station in Bahía de Los Ángeles, Baja California, Mexico. She has been teaching courses at the Vermilion Sea Field Station for over ten years. Her scientific research has been mainly in the area of molecular population genetics, focusing on social insects. She has also worked on the conservation genetics of marine mammals. More recently, Dr. Volny has turned her attention to the study of sustainable food systems. Specifically, she is interested in understanding the cultural and technological underpinnings of successful and environmentally sustainable food systems. |
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