Dr. Nalini Nadkarni is a Professor of Biology at the University of Utah. An award-winning ecologist, she pioneered the study of rainforest canopies, and her research has been supported by the National Science Foundation and the National Geographic Society. Nadkarni shares her knowledge of forest ecology and conservation through collaborations with faith-based groups, artists, corporations, and the incarcerated.
Nadkarni received her BS from Brown University and her Ph.D. from the University of Washington and has honorary Ph.D. degrees from Brown University and the University of Indianapolis. She has written over 140 scientific papers, three scholarly books, and has collaborated on three children’s books. Nadkarni’s writing for popular audiences has been featured in Science, Natural History, Discover, Glamour among many others. She has appeared on Good Morning America, Bill Nye the Science Guy, and the Emmy-Award winning National Geographic program Heroes of the High Frontier. Dr. Nadkarni has also contributed to NPR’s Science Friday, Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me, and RadioLab. In addition, she has delivered two full length TED talks on Conserving the Canopy and Life Science in Prisons, and over 25 endowed lectures around the world.
Nadkarni’s many awards and honors include: the John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship; the Aldo Leopold Leadership Fellowship; the J. Sterling Morton Award from the National Arbor Day Foundation; the 2010 Public Service Award from the National Science Foundation Board; the Public Engagement Award from the American Association for the Advancement of Science; TIME Magazine recognized Nadkarni’s idea to bring nature imagery to prisoners in solitary confinement as “One of the 25 Best Inventions 2014.”
Dr. Nadkarni is currently at work on a memoir that explores the dynamics of disturbance and recovery.