Dr. Francesca Grifo
Union of Concerned Scientists
Previously Aired On: July 10, 2007 - Listen to this Show!
The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) is the leading science-based nonprofit working for a healthy environment and a safer world. Originally begun by students and faculty at MIT, UCS now has over 200,000 members both scientists and non-scientists committed to research and develop practical solutions to a range of issues, from global warming and the dangers of nuclear weapons to vehicle pollution and the risks of genetically engineered food crops.
Dr. Francesca Grifo is the Senior Scientist and Director of the Scientific Integrity Program at UCS. Dr. Grifo came to UCS in 2005 from Columbia University where she directed the Center for Environmental Research and Conservation graduate policy workshop and ran the Science Teachers Environmental Education Program. Prior to that, she was director of the Center for Biodiversity and Conservation and a curator of the Hall of Biodiversity at the American Museum of Natural History in New York.
Dr. Grifo edited and contributed to the books Biodiversity and Human Health and The Living Planet in Crisis; biodiversity science and policy. In addition to her scholarly work, Dr. Grifo was the manager of the International Cooperative Biodiversity Groups Program at the National Institutes of Health. She was also a senior program officer for Central and Eastern European for the Biodiversity Support Program, a consortium of the World Resources Institute, the Nature Conservancy, and the World Wildlife Fund; and an AAAS Fellow in the Office of Research at the Agency for International Development.
Francesca earned her PhD in botany from Cornell, and a BA in biology from Smith College. She currently holds adjunct appointments at Columbia and Georgetown.
