Andrew Friedland is Richard and Jane Pearl Professor in Environmental Studies and former chair of the Environmental Studies Program at Dartmouth College. He was the founding chair of the AP® Test Development Committee (College Board®) for Environmental Science. He has a strong interest in high school science education, and in the early years of AP® environmental science he participated in many trainer and teacher workshops. For more than 15 years, Andy has been a guest lecturer at various Advanced Placement® Institutes for Secondary Teachers and in high school APES classrooms. He also served on the College Board AP® Environmental Science Curriculum Development and Assessment Committee. Andy regularly teaches introductory environmental science and energy courses at Dartmouth and has taught courses in forest biogeochemistry, global change, and soil science, as well as study abroad courses in Kenya. He taught an online introductory environmental science course that is accessible through edX.org and YouTube. Andy received a BA degree in both biology and environmental studies, and a PhD in earth and environmental science, from the University of Pennsylvania. For three decades, Andy has been investigating the effects of air pollution on the cycling of carbon, nitrogen, and lead in high-elevation forests of New England and the Northeast. More recently, he has examined the impact of increased demand for wood as a fuel, and the subsequent effect on carbon stored deep in forest soils. Andy has served on panels for the National Science Foundation, USDA Forest Service, and Science Advisory Board of the Environmental Protection Agency. He has authored or coauthored 80 peer-reviewed publications and one book, Writing Successful Science Proposals, Third Edition (Yale University Press). In 2015, he was named a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Andy is passionate about saving energy and at his home has installed a 4 kW photovoltaic tracker that follows the sun during the day.

Rick Relyea is the Director of the Darrin Fresh Water Institute at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He also serves as Director of the Jefferson Project at Lake George, a groundbreaking partnership between Rensselaer, IBM, and the FUND for Lake George. For the project, Relyea leads a team of Rensselaer scientists, engineers, computer scientists, and artists who are using the latest in science and technology to understand, predict, and enable a resilient ecosystem for nearby Lake George.

 

From 1999 to 2014, Relyea was at the University of Pittsburgh. In 2005, he was named the Chancellor’s Distinguished Researcher and in 2014 he received the Tina and David Bellet Award for Teaching Excellence. From 2007-2014, Relyea served as the director of the university’s field station, the Pymatuning Laboratory of Ecology, where he oversaw a diverse set of ecological field courses and facilitates researchers from around the world.

 

Rick has taught thousands of undergraduate students in introductory ecology, behavioral ecology, and evolution. His research is recognized throughout the world and has been published in Ecology, Ecology Letters, American Naturalist, PNAS, and other leading ecological journals. The research spans a wide range of ecological and evolutionary topics including animal behavior, sexual selection, ecotoxicology, disease ecology, phenotypic plasticity, community ecology, ecosystem ecology, and landscape ecology. Currently Relyea’s research focuses on aquatic habitats and the diversity of species that live in these ecosystems.