Thomas Lovejoy one among the world’s leading conservation biologist died on Saturday, December 25. Lovejoy had enjoyed a 50 year long career which carried him round the world as a conservation proponent. He was the first to use the term “biodiversity” and also among the world’s foremost experts on biodiversity in the amazon.
Dr Lovejoy served as a University Professor within the Department of Environmental Science and Policy in the Mason’s College of Science in 2010. He also served as a scientific director for Mason’s Institute for a Sustainable Earth.
Thomas Lovejoy was a colossus among world leaders in environmental management. Being also a good and decent person, his loss is devastating to humanity and indeed the planet and he will be sorely missed.
Dr Thomas was both Founder and President of the non-profit Amazon Biodiversity Center and the Biological Dynamics of Forest Fragments Project in the central Amazon (with INPA, Brazil’s National Insitute of Amazon Research).
He served on science and environmental councils under the administration of Presidents Reagan, Bush, and Clinton and as Science Envoy for Presidents Obama and Biden. He was also a Senior Fellow at the United Nation Foundation.
As an international climate scientist of high esteem, Professor Lovejoy focused on the critical importance of sustainability, he also made many consequential contributions to our understanding of climate change as we know it today and employed a cross disciplinary approach to finding solutions to the greatest and grandest challenges to our era.
In April 2021 Dr Lovejoy joined an elite group of scholars recognised for their contributions to Science and research upon his induction into the National Academy of Sciences. Also in 2019 he was named one of Virginia’s Outstanding Scientists, honouring him for his globally significant contributions to the field of science.
For many decades Lovejoy associated with the National Geographic Society, since receiving his first grant to study the ecology of rainforest birds in the Amazon in 1971. He also served as a member of the society’s Committee for Research and Exploration, Ocean Restoration Advisory Council; he chaired the Big Cats Initiatives Grants Committee and the Advisory Committee of the Great Energy Challenge; also as a scientific advisor to the Society’s Chief Scientist and its Perpetual Planet Expeditions.
“To know Tom was to know and extraordinary scientist, Professor, advisor, and an unyielding champion for our plantet” said Jill Tiefenthaler, Chief Executive Officer of National Geographic in an online statement. He further added that Dr Thomson was a consummate connector, helping bring people and organisations together to preserve and protect some of our most fragile ecosystem and cornerstone speices”
In 2019, he was selected as a National Geographic Explorer at Large, a title he held until his demise.
