Indianapolis Prize Winner Patricia Wright to Deliver the First Woods Lecture
The J. James Woods Lectures in the Sciences and Mathematics presents Indianapolis Prize Winner Patricia C. Wright, September 29, 7:30 p.m. in the Atherton Union Reilly Room.
Admission is free and open to the public without tickets.
Wright’s talk is entitled “Saving Lemurs from Extinction: The Challenges.”
The Stony Brook University distinguished professor and primate expert won the 2014 Indianapolis Prize, which is given every two years to recognize global leaders in animal conservation. She won the $250,000 cash award for her work in protecting the endangered lemurs of Madagascar.
In 1991, her advocacy led to the creation of Ranomafana National Park, which covers about 160 square miles in southeastern Madagascar.
Wright founded the Institute for the Conservation of Tropical Environments and Centre ValBio, a rain forest research station with a 15,000-square-foot “green” building that can house 52 scientists and boasts three laboratories, a conference room and a veranda for lectures and symposiums.
Wright and the lemurs were featured in a 3-D IMAX documentary released nationwide in April titled “Island of Lemurs: Madagascar.” The film, narrated by Morgan Freeman, aimed to inspire a mainstream audience to advance the conservation efforts for lemurs, primates that have been around since the time of the dinosaurs. In the same month, Stony Brook University honored her at its annual gala.
The Indianapolis Prize is given every other year to an individual who has made extraordinary contributions to conservation efforts involving a single animal species or multiple species. The prize was first awarded in 2006 to George Archibald, the co-founder of the International Crane Foundation and one of the world’s great field biologists. In 2008, the Indianapolis Prize went to George Schaller, the world’s pre-eminent field biologist and vice president of science and exploration for the Wildlife Conservation Society.
The 2010 winner was Iain Douglas-Hamilton, founder and president of Save the Elephants and the world’s pre-eminent elephant researcher. In 2012, Steven Amstrup, of Polar Bears International, received the Indianapolis Prize for his field work and research that led the U.S. to declare polar bears as threatened under the U.S. Endangered Species Act.
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