Last modified: Wednesday, April 28, 2010
IU ecological anthropologist Moran elected to National Academy of Sciences
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 28, 2010
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Indiana University Bloomington anthropologist Emilio Moran has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences. The announcement came yesterday (April 27) during the business session of the 147th annual meeting of the academy.
Moran, both an IU Bloomington Distinguished Professor and the James H. Rudy Professor of Anthropology, is an internationally recognized ecological and environmental anthropologist whose research has focused on aspects of the human dimensions of environmental change.
His research has been supported by the National Science Foundation, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the National Institutes of Health and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Appointed to the IU faculty in 1975, Moran is also a professor of environmental science and an adjunct professor of geography.
"Emilio's work has shaped the field of human adaptation and human-environment interaction in anthropology and beyond. Today he represents a leading voice on the study of human adaptation to climate change as his work and vision have been instrumental in positioning Anthropology as a major contributor to the study of global environmental change and the development of national and international agendas for research on the human dimensions of global climate change," said Eduardo Brondizio, chair of the IU Department of Anthropology and a longtime collaborator with Moran. "He is arguably the most influential anthropologist within this community as he is internationally recognized as the 'key linker' between the social and biophysical sciences in the study of human-environment interaction."
Brondizio described Moran as a "pioneer on the integration of remote sensing and spatial methodologies in anthropology and frameworks for collaborative interdisciplinary research," who is, above all, "a great and continuous fieldworker whose understanding of the reality of the Amazonian people he loves so much helps to ground his broad vision of a science of human-environment research which can contribute to real solutions to global problems."
Moran serves as director of the Anthropological Center for Training and Research on Global Environmental Change (ACT) and is a founding co-director with 2009 Nobel Prize winner Elinor Ostrom of the Center for the Study of Institutions, Population and Environmental Change (CIPEC). Both centers are based at IU.
In 1985, Moran was elected as an American Association for the Advancement of Science fellow. In 1989, he received a Guggenheim Fellowship. In 1999, he was elected as a Linnean Society of London fellow. Most recently, in 2002, he received the prestigious Robert McC. Netting Award from the American Association of Geographers in recognition of his work to bridge geography and anthropology. He is also a fellow of the American Anthropological Association and the Society for Applied Anthropology.
He holds a Ph.D. in social anthropology and an M.A. in Latin American history from the University of Florida and a B.A. in Spanish American literature from Spring Hill College.
The National Academy of Sciences said Moran was among 72 new members and 18 foreign associates from 14 countries elected this year for their distinguished and continuing achievements in original research. Those elected yesterday bring the total number of active members to 2,097, including 10 other active members at Indiana University.
The National Academy of Sciences is a private organization of scientists and engineers dedicated to the furtherance of science and its use for the general welfare. It was established in 1863 by a congressional act of incorporation signed by Abraham Lincoln that calls on the academy to act as an official adviser to the federal government, upon request, in any matter of science or technology.
To speak with Moran or Brondizio, please contact Steve Chaplin, Office of Communications, at 812-856-1896 or stjchap@indiana.edu.
