printable versionStanford’s Gretchen Daily wins $420,000 award for finding ways to save biodiversity
Professor Gretchen Daily
Gretchen Daily, Stanford professor of biology, has won the International Cosmos Prize, awarded by the Expo ’90 Foundation in Japan. The prize includes a commendation, a medallion and 40 million yen (approximately $420,000). It has been awarded annually beginning in 1993. Previous winners include author Jared Diamond, naturalist David Attenborough and evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins.
“Gretchen is a perfect choice for the Cosmos Prize, which is focused on finding pathways to harmonious relationships between humans and nature,” said Chris Field, professor of biology and of environmental earth system science. “Gretchen has done more than anyone else to open eyes and minds to the prospects for conserving and benefiting from the slices of nature in our own backyards. Her impact, often based on communicating big ideas through small examples, aligns perfectly with a big prize named for a small flower.”
In addition to being the name of a flower, the word “cosmos” denotes an orderly and harmonious universe, making it an appropriate symbol for the foundation’s award. The Expo ’90 Foundation was established to continue to promote the theme of the world’s fair held in 1990 in Osaka, Japan, to advance “the harmonious coexistence of nature and mankind.” It was known as “Flower Expo” for short in Japan.
In announcing Daily’s award, Expo ’90 lauded her as “a researcher who has provided us with a comprehensive picture of the value of biodiversity-based ecosystem services, upon which human society is dependent.”
The announcement also noted that Daily founded the Stanford-based Natural Capital Project, “integrating ecology and economics,” and that she “has constantly asserted that participation by the private sector is required for sustainable economic advancement which takes environmental conservation into consideration.”
In a written statement acknowledging the award, Daily said, “When I began research in conservation, the prevailing view was that the key to the future of biodiversity, and to sustaining Earth’s life support systems, was in remnants of natural habitat—Noah’s Arks floating in a hostile sea of development. We have since discovered, to the contrary, that Arks will sustain neither people nor Nature for long. But fortunately, we have found tremendous potential for conservation in the sea of human enterprise—ways of making conservation attractive, from biophysical, economic and social perspectives—among the many farmers, ranchers, fishing people and others managing Earth’s lands and waters.”
Barton Thompson, director of Stanford’s Woods Institute for the Environment, where Daily and Field are both senior fellows, said, “Gretchen is that rare academic scholar who inspires change and works tirelessly to achieve it. Not only has she provided the scholarly underpinning for the identification and valuation of ecosystem services, but she has helped convince decision makers throughout the world that they should invest more in conservation because of those services.”
The award ceremony will be held in Osaka, Japan, on Oct. 27.