- Gene Likens
Gene Elden Likens (born
January 6 ,1935 ) is an American ecologist and a leading pioneer in the study ofacid rain .Likens obtained his PhD from the
University of Wisconsin, Madison in 1962, and joined the faculty ofDartmouth College in 1961. He was co-founder in 1963 of a group with Drs. F. Herbert Bormann, Robert S. Pierce and Noye M. Johnson working on the Hubbard Brook Ecosystem Study at theHubbard Brook Experimental Forest in the White Mountains ofNew Hampshire . [cite web
title = Hubbard Brook Ecosystem Study
publisher = National Science Foundation
url = http://www.hubbardbrook.org/
accessdate = 2007-11-11] The study immediately found that the rain was abnormally acidic, and the group made one of the first scientific studies linking acid rain to air pollution such asSulphur Dioxide . The group also devised a range of highly influential long-term experiments on the ecosystem scale.Likens was elected to the
United States National Academy of Sciences in 1981. In 1983 he founded theInstitute of Ecosystem Studies (IES) inMillbrook, New York as part of theNew York Botanical Garden . The IES became independent in 1993 with Likens as director and president. In 2007 Likens stepped down as director of the IES and returned to full-time research.Likens was also elected as foreign member of the
Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in 1988, theRoyal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters in 1994 and theAustrian Academy of Sciences in 2000. He was awarded the U.S.National Medal of Science in 2001.References
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