A Hollywood film of your life might dub you “lndiana Meg,” the swashbuckling biologist. You have worked from a sled hanging from a dirigible in Cameroon. You have conducted more than sixty live classes by satellite from the rain forest of Belize. You have used slingshot cord, cranes, hot air balloons, walkways, and harnesses in all manner of wind and weather. You have even climbed the dreaded stinging gympie-gympie tree. No wonder you have been made a fellow of the Explorers Club. Your holy grail has been new knowledge of the interactions of trees, animals, and insects. The challenge has been to get where the action is—seventy feet or higher into the forest canopy. With ingenuity and pluck you have helped pioneer the study of tree canopies, where, it turns out, the majority of the Earth’s plants and animals reside. As visiting professor at Williams you built in Hopkins Forest the first canopy walk in North America and, as a result, discovered a string of surprises aloft-southern flying squirrels, vole, porcupines, and the alarming effects of acid rain. Your worldwide travels to map the canopy for biodiversity have produced breakthroughs in forest conservation and regeneration, including discovery of the causes of the eucalypt dieback syndrome that had destroyed millions of trees in rural Australia. Down here on terra firma your passion to educate has been evident in your more than seventy articles and three books, including your critically acclaimed autobiography, “Life in the Treetops.” in your relentless speaking schedule, and in your work at Florida’s Selby Botanical Gardens, where you now serve as Executive Director—all this while preparing for your next jungle adventure.
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