Sylvia Vitazkova, director of the George Mason University Center for Conservation Studies and New Century College faculty member, and Kate Christen, graduate and professional training manager at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute, represented the Smithsonian-Mason Global Conservation Studies Program at the second annual Student Conference on Conservation Science at New York’s American Museum of Natural History, Oct. 11-15, 2011. Over 270 master’s students, doctoral students and early career professionals from around the globe presented talks and posters at the conference.
Vitazkova was one of three judges who evaluated all 30 full-length talks during the course of the conference and helped choose the three best presentations. The authors of these, along with the winners of the speed-talk and poster sessions, were awarded book prizes donated by several university presses. Christen, an environmental historian, moderated a session of talks on socioeconomic dimensions of conservation. She also mentored students at a lunch event and informally throughout the conference.
Christen also co-led a workshop on conservation leadership, providing a brief preview of the two-week 3-credit CONS 697/MCCS 0507 Adaptive Management for Conservation Success course the Smithsonian-Mason program co-teaches.
Other conference participants represented a range of leading conservation-oriented institutions, including Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Science, Princeton University, Cambridge University, Columbia University’s Earth Institute, American Museum of Natural History’s Richard Gilder Graduate School, EcoHealth Alliance and Fordham University.