ABOUT DIVERSITAS
DIVERSITAS
Established in 1991 as an international program to address broad and complex issues related to global biodiversity, DIVERSITAS seeks to promote biodiversity research as an integrated science combining expertise in biology, ecology, geology, and the social sciences.
DIVERSITAS is sponsored by four organizations: the International Council for Science (ICSU), the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the International Union of Biological Sciences (IUBS), and the Scientific Committee on Problems of the Environment (SCOPE).
The four core projects of DIVERSITAS are bioDISCOVERY, bioGENESIS, ecoSERVICES, and bioSUSTAINABILITY.
Learn more about the mission of DIVERSITAS...
For more information about DIVERSITAS, including a calender of events and most recent Annual Report,
visit the DIVERSITAS homepage...
The U.S. National Committee for DIVERSITAS (USNC/DIVERSITAS) is charged with advancing DIVERSITAS as an international biodiversity science program that links biological, ecological and social disciplines.
The USNC/DIVERSITAS is composed of representatives from academia, non-governmental organizations, and experts in the different DIVERSITAS program elements. The senior American member of the Scientific Steering Committee (SC) of the international DIVERSITAS program serves as an ex officio member of the committee. Presently the SC Chairman, Professor Hal Mooney serves on the USNC. Members of the SC and chairs of DIVERSITAS core programs and cross-cutting initiatives are invited to all USNC meetings.
DARWIN SYMPOSIUM HIGHLIGHTED BIODIVERSITY POLICY
The USNC/DIVERSITAS and the Board on International Scientific Organizations convened “Twenty-first Century Ecosystems: Systemic Risk and the Public Good,” a symposium on the Science and Policy for Managing the Living World Two Centuries after the birth of Charles Darwin on February 11-12, 2009 at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). The symposium focused on opportunities for designing policies that strengthen and make use of biodiversity and ecosystem services as well as the dangers of pursuing policies that put ecosystems at risk.
View symposium agenda and watch iGoogle video webcasts.
- Peter Crane, Chair
University of Chicago
- Rodolfo Dirzo
Stanford University
- Michael J. Donoghue
Yale University
- Ann Kinzig
Arizona State University
- Thomas E. Lovejoy
H. John Heinz III Center for Science, Economics and the Environment
- Harold Mooney (Ex Officio)
DIVERSITAS Science Committee Chair
Stanford University
- Lynne Parenti
National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution
- Stephen Polasky
University of Minnesota, St. Paul
- Cristián Samper
Acting Secretary, Smithsonian Institution
- Jorge Soberón
The University of Kansas
- James Tiedje
Michigan State University
NRC STAFF
Margaret
Collins, Program Officer
Avihai Ostchega, Senior Program Assistant
The USNC/DIVERSITAS is supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. DBI-0222688.
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The DIVERSITAS Open Science Conference, held in Cape Town on Oct. 11-16, 2009, attracted over 700 participants from 70 countries. There were approximately 55 attendees from the United States, including 4 members of the USNC (Hal Mooney, Michael Donoghue, Ann Kinzig and Steve Polasky). October 13th was devoted to a meeting for DIVERSITAS National Committees; at that meeting, Michael Donoghue gave a presentation describing the organization and procedures of the USNC. 