Gene E. Likens

Gene Elden Likens (born January 6, 1935) is an American limnologist and ecologist. He co-founded the Hubbard Brook Ecosystem Study at the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest in 1963, and founded the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies in Millbrook, New York in 1983. In addition to its scientific impact, this work has influenced public debate and governmental policy, particularly the United States Congress's Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990. Likens received his B.S. in zoology at Manchester University (North Manchester, Indiana) in 1957, followed by his M.S. in zoology in 1959 from the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He received his Ph.D. in zoology in 1962, also from the University of Wisconsin–Madison, for his thesis on Transport of radioisotopes in lakes.

Career Dartmouth College Likens was an instructor and associate professor at Dartmouth College from 1963 to 1969. examining the thermal structures of Lake Vanda and Lake Bonney.

Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest

Likens was co-founder in 1963 of a group with F. Herbert Bormann, Robert S. Pierce and Noye M. Johnson working on the Hubbard Brook Ecosystem Study at the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. The study immediately found that the rain was abnormally acidic, and the group carried out one of the first scientific studies linking acid rain to air pollution such as sulphur dioxide from the use of fossil fuels.

In 1988, Hubbard Brook was designated by the National Science Foundation as an LTER, a site for collaborative long term ecological research. In 2005, Hubbard Brook celebrated 50 years of research at the site. Liken has extensively studied biogeochemical cycles describing the flow of matter within ecosystems. Riparian zones linking water and land are particularly important in maintaining the health of wild lands. Liken has also done important work on deforestation and its potential impact on the chemistry of watersheds. This research has had significant impacts on programs for forest management, in particular the United States Forest Service's adoption of a 100–year rotation policy.

Likens and others devised a range of highly influential long-term experiments on an ecosystemic scale. These include the small-watershed model of nutrient cycling, in which all water entering and leaving a naturally-bounded watershed is measured, enabling scientists to calculate the hydrologic budget of the watershed. Likens' work is considered "classic", In January 1983 he was named Cornell University's Charles A. Alexander Professor of Biological Sciences. While at Cornell University, he served as chairman of the Section of Ecology and Systematics. In addition to managing teams of scientists and educators, Likens continued his research at Hubbard Brook each summer.

Likens has published 25 books and more than 580 papers and book chapters. His work has influenced the United States Congress on issues such as the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990. He became an elected member in biological sciences of the American Philosophical Society in 2006. He's also a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. the 1993 Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement and the 2001 Huxley Medal of the Institute of Biology, London, UK. In 2003, Likens and Dr. F. Herbert Bormann received the Blue Planet Prize from Asahi Glass Foundation, for "outstanding scientific research that helps to solve global environmental problems". In 2014, he received the Alfred C. Redfield Lifetime Achievement Award from the Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography (ASLO).

Likens has been awarded honorary doctoral degrees internationally (Universität für Bodenkultur, Vienna, 1992; Wageningen Agricultural University, The Netherlands, 1998) as well as nationally (Manchester College, 1979; Rutgers University, 1985; Plymouth State College, University System of New Hampshire, 1989; Miami University, 1990; Union College, 1991; Marist College, 1993; University of Connecticut, 2004; Montclair State University, 2012).

Family Gene Likens and his wife Phyllis Irene Craig Likens (1951–2014) had four children. Phyllis also worked at Cornell University and the Institute of Ecosystem Studies and contributed significantly to the Hubbard Brook Ecosystem Study.