Yesterday, I was talking about the Heinz Award winners for this year. The Heinz Award was named after Senator John Heinz, heir to the H.J. Heinz Company (think ketchup), who died in 1991. His wife Teresa founded the awards in 1993 to honor her husband, a champion for environmental issues.
Louis J. Guillette, Jr., of the Medical University of South Carolina, was another winner this year. He performs research on how chemicals affect reproduction of wildlife and humans. This reproductive biologist has testified before Congress and served as a science policy adviser for governmental agencies.
Joan Kleypas has done research on how temperature changes and seawater chemistry changes has affected coral reefs. But, Kleypas, who is at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, has also discovered ways to help the coral reef, which in turn helps ocean organisms that rely on them. Her testimony before Congress in 2009 helped get the Federal Ocean Acidification Research and Monitoring Act passed.
Nancy Knowlton, of the Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of Natural History, is also interested in saving the coral reefs and oceans. She is the founder of the Center for Marine Biodiversity and Conservation and chaired the synthesis panel for the Coral Reef Targeted Research Program, which brought together many of the leading coral reef scientists for the first time.
Another Nancy, Nancy Rabalais, also won the Heinz Award this year. She helped identify the low-oxygen area of the Gulf of Mexico. These so called “dead zones” can impact regional fishing and the health of the coastal environment. Her work to identify this area and what causes the dead zone helps the government find ways to reduce the nutrient loads of the Mississippi that cause it.
And last but not least is Sandra Steingraber. Steingraber believed that growing up in an area polluted with toxins caused her to have bladder cancer at age 20. She then devoted her life to finding the links between industrial toxins and diseases. She also has been an advocate for the protection of citizens against such toxins.