Carleton environmental science and biology professor Steven Cooke has become an international fellow of the prestigious Explorers Club.
The Explorers Club is a society based in New York City that promotes scientific exploration, field research and resource conservation through its funding and global network of science experts.
Cooke joins the ranks of some notable club members, including astronaut Neil Armstrong, astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson and director James Cameron.
According to the club’s criteria for the fellowship, Cooke is eligible for the membership by distinguishing himself through “documented contributions to scientific knowledge through field expeditions.”
Cooke’s research has spanned the natural and social sciences, specifically in integrative biology, conservation science and natural resource management.
Cooke said he is leading the ongoing research of the Cooke Lab at Carleton, which studies the migration biology of marine and freshwater fish using technology, such as underwater videography to monitor free-swimming fish in the wild.
“These days, most of my research has been focused on trying to figure out how to protect and restore freshwater biodiversity, given that we’re in a freshwater diversity crisis,” Cooke said.
He said while his research will not take him to the “deepest trench of the ocean in a submersible or the top of the highest mountain in the world,” it has taken him to freshwater lakes, shallow-water rivers, wetlands and swamps as he tries to understand fish in their natural environment.
To become a fellow at the Explorers Club, applicants need letters of sponsorship from two current club members or fellows. Cooke was co-nominated by Austin Gallagher, the founder of the ocean conservation non-profit Beneath the Waves, and Andy J. Danylchuk.
A professor of fish conservation at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, Danylchuk has been a fellow of the Explorers Club since 2016. He said he has been a close friend of Cooke’s since they were graduate students in the late 1990s and research collaborators since 2004.
Danylchuk said his friendship with Cooke as well as their experiences working together made it easy to nominate Cooke for fellowship.
“I feel pretty honoured to know someone like Steve. He’s a much more prolific scientist and he’s a publishing machine. He’s a very well-respected and productive scientist, but he’s also a human being. He’s very grounded and he hasn’t lost the sense of excitement that is tied with exploring,” he said.
According to Danylchuk, members of the Explorers Club are also selected based on holistic virtues as an explorer, environmentalist and humanitarian.
“You’re not just exploring for the sake of your own satisfaction but your ability to raise social awareness or change policy,” Danylchuk said. “It is about exploration that positively creates social change.”
Cooke said he is deeply involved in defining the new discipline of conservation physiology—a field dedicated to understanding the mechanisms underlying conservation problems, especially in regard to the conservation and management of aquatic resources.
“We try to focus on solutions, identifying what works, and then working with communities and environmental practitioners to try and implement meaningful changes that benefit fish habitats and aquatic ecosystems and the people who depend on them,” he said.
Cooke also said he is excited to join the club and meet other influential researchers searching for social change. Right now, members can only meet remotely and activities are on hold due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I’m looking forward to a time when it’s safe to be able to visit the Explorers Club and participate in their meetings and engage in really meaningful conversations, ideas and creativity,” Cooke said.
Featured image provided by Steven Cooke.
