David M. Lodge
David M. Lodge, the Francis J. DiSalvo director of the Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability, is an internationally recognized conservation biologist, a past president of the Ecological Society of America, and the founder and former director of the University of Notre Dame Environmental Change Initiative.
One of the world’s leading experts on invasive species, Lodge has extensive research experience in freshwater ecology, invasive species biology and bioeconomics, ecological risk analysis, global changes and biodiversity, and environmental ethics and policy.
Lodge has a long history of collaborating with economists, historians, theologians, and philosophers and has partnered with organizations to bring his scientific work to the public policy arena. He has testified before Congress on numerous occasions, served on national and international policy boards, and was a senior science adviser to the U.S. Department of State. In 2013-2016, he was a member of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Science Advisory Board. He has published 240 scientific papers and edited two books.
Lodge’s appointment began in May 2016. He serves as the first Francis J. DiSalvo Director of the Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability, thanks to a gift from David ’60 and Patricia Atkinson in honor of the Center’s founding director.
Lodge’s past research in rural Kenya and Zambia identified ways to improve human livelihoods and health, while also providing energy and minimizing environmental impact. While at Notre Dame, Lodge founded two centers and coordinated externally funded research projects totaling $13 million in his last decade at Notre Dame. He led a formal partnership with The Nature Conservancy and annually convened representatives from 30 state, provincial, and federal agencies from the United States and Canada to enhance the relevance of university research and hasten its application in natural resource management. At Cornell, Lodge leads projects funded by NSF, EPA, DoD, and NOAA.
Lodge’s academic home at Cornell is in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. He has a joint appointment with the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and the College of Arts and Sciences.