Rankings & Recognition

Chris Bowser Receives Outstanding Educator Award

 

Adjunct Professor of Environmental Science and Policy Chris Bowser (left), who was presented with the Hudson River Environmental Society's (HRES) Outstanding Educator Award at a Nov. 12 ceremony at Poughkeepsie's River Station restaurant. With him is Lucy Johnson, HRES board president, and Bob Daniels, winner of the Distinguished Service Award   

Hudson River Environmental Society honors environmental science professor

Bowser has been an adjunct faculty member in the School of Science's Department of Environmental Science & Policy since 2003 and also serves as director of Marist’s Summer Environmental Institute for pre-college high school students.

"Chris Bowser is indeed an outstanding and respected educator and well-deserving of this award from a community of scientists and educators who share his commitment to the environment," said Dean of the School of Science Jim DuMond. "His love of - and enthusiasm for - our great Hudson River carries through in his teaching of Marist students. The result is that hundreds of students who have studied under him have come away with a greater understanding of and appreciation for the natural environment of our region."

Marist representatives, including Executive Vice President Geoff Brackett, Associate Professor of Chemistry and Assistant Dean of Science Neil Fitzgerald, and Associate Professor of Environmental Science Zofia Gagnon were among those who turned out to help honor Bowser at the Nov. 12 ceremony. 

Bowser works as the education coordinator for the Hudson River Research Reserve and as a science education specialist for the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation's Hudson River Estuary Program, in partnership with the Water Resource Institute of Cornell University.

His current work focuses on environmental education and citizen science in the Hudson River Valley. He helps coordinate an annual estuary-wide monitoring day involving 5,000 students and educators at over 70 shoreline sites, leads teacher training workshops on incorporating Hudson River topics into school curriculum, and designs on-site and distance learning programs for the Norrie Point Environmental Education Center in Staatsburg, N.Y. Chris also created and implements a citizen-science project in which 500 volunteers collect daily information on migrating American eels into Hudson River tributaries from New York City to Albany. Since 2008, this project has released over 250,000 eels above barriers to migration.

Bowser's professional experience also includes: working as a Peace Corps volunteer in the West African nation of Mauritania, doing dune stabilization and reforestation; serving as education director for the Hudson River Sloop Clearwater; mapping river shorelines; conducting environmental education workshops in Haiti; and teaching in Bard College’s Environmental and Urban Studies program.

He has received fellowships from the Switzer Family Foundation, Audubon/Toyota TogetherGreen, and Ecology Project International, and was awarded a 2014 Environmental Quality Award by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. He earned his M.S. in environmental science and policy from Clark University and his B.S. in biology from Rutgers University.

About the Hudson River Environmental Society

The Hudson River Environmental Society (HRES), a nonprofit membership organization, was founded in 1970 to foster research on the Hudson River environment and related coastal areas, provide a forum for communication and cooperation among researchers, and make the results of environmental research available and accessible to concerned citizens and public officials.

HRES works to facilitate and coordinate research in the physical, biological and social sciences; environmental engineering; resource management; urban and regional planning; and other disciplines in the Hudson River Valley region. Equally important, HRES serves as a channel of communication between the research community and researchers.

HRES strives to ensure that the best possible information is available to those who potentially affect the environment. HRES does not take a position on specific projects.

The Society's membership includes corporate members, individuals from major academic and research institutions, consulting firms, government agencies, industries, and conservation organizations concerned with environmental matters in the Hudson River Valley region and interested citizens.

Asset Publisher