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John P. Holdren, the Teresa and John Heinz Professor of Environmental Policy at the Kennedy School of Government, has won the Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement for his work to mobilize the international community of scientists and policy-makers to take action on a wide range of global energy, environmental, and security issues.
The Tyler Prize is an international award honoring achievements in environmental science, energy, and medical discoveries of worldwide importance that impact upon human existence.
“Professor Holdren’s leadership in research and policy in global energy and environmental issues has had a profound influence in shaping global environmental debate and advancing scientific contributions that affect the well-being of people and relations among nations,” said Robert P. Sullivan, PhD., chair of the Tyler Prize Executive Committee. Holdren is also the director of the Program in Science, Technology, and Public Policy at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at the Kennedy School, a professor of Environmental Science and Policy in Harvard’s Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, and a Visiting Distinguished Scientist at the Woods Hole Research Center.
An authority on energy technology and policy, global environmental change, and nuclear nonproliferation, Holdren’s research has helped shape new understanding and new policies relating to energy strategy for sustainable development, causes and consequences of global climate change, and the protection of weapon-usable nuclear materials. He chairs the Committee on International Security and Arms Control at the National Academy of Sciences.
Holdren’s involvement in international efforts to reduce the danger of nuclear conflict dates to the early 1970s. He began participating in 1973 in the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs—a group of scholars and public figures from around the world concerned with nuclear arms reductions and seeking cooperative solutions for global problems. Holdren served as chair of the Pugwash executive committee from 1987 to 1997, and was chosen by his colleagues to give the acceptance speech when the Pugwash organization received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1995.
