Heather Lynch Selected as 2027-28 George Eastman Visiting Professor at Oxford University

Heather Lynch, a professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolution in the College of Arts and Sciences and the first Endowed Chair for Ecology and Evolution at Stony Brook University's Institute for Advanced Computation Science (IACS), has been honored with the 2027-2028 George Eastman Visiting Professorship at Oxford University.

Established in 1929 by George Eastman, founder of the Eastman Kodak Company, the one-year professorship is administered by the American Association of Rhodes Scholars and is awarded annually to a senior scholar "of the highest distinction" from the United States. Lynch's position will start in September 2027.

"I'm incredibly honored to be selected for this position, and more than a little surprised," said Lynch. "The list of former Eastman Professors is daunting to say the least, and I couldn't be more humbled to join their ranks. I've been looking forward to this sabbatical for some time and have had a lot of reasons to look to Oxford as an ideal location to spend my sabbatical year."

Lynch said that while her academic research has been focused on the "how" of conservation, her current work and plans for Oxford focus more on the "why" of conservation.

"In particular, I am interested in connecting theories from cognitive psychology and the evolution of morality to the problem of climate change," she said. "In short, under what circumstances can we ever expect people to voluntarily lower their own standard of living, and - even more challengingly- that of their children, in pursuit of carbon emission reductions?"

Lynch, the inaugural director of Stony Brook's Collaborative for the Earth, said her work connects together a number of disparate intellectual traditions, from environmental philosophy to sociobiology to ethics and theories of agency.

"In addition to work with biologists, I'm hoping to take advantage of the Uehiro Oxford Institute, which focused on applied ethics, and also the Laudato Sí Research Institute, where I'm hoping to tackle some issues where applied conservation overlaps with principles rooted in Catholic theology," she said. "It's going to be a busy year. I've recently started teaching CDS 101, which is an interdisciplinary co-taught class on Climate & Society, and in spring 2027 I will teach a new class with a faculty member in philosophy on Climate Ethics. I have no doubt that this sabbatical will provide tremendous inspiration for these two courses on my return."

"My heartfelt congratulations to Heather Lynch on being named George Eastman Visiting Professor at Oxford University," said David Wrobel, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. "This recognition is more than an academic distinction - it is a testament to Heather's vision and creativity, and the brilliant impact she's made and continues to make in addressing climate change."

Lynch's research focuses on the development and application of statistics and mathematics to conservation biology, primarily in the context of penguins and other seabirds in Antarctica. Her team developed a way to use satellite monitoring systems to track penguin populations in Antarctica through the pink guano stains left behind at the colonies where they breed, and she has used this technique to establish global population estimates for all of Antarctica's penguin species.

This innovative use of satellite imagery eventually led to the discovery of a colony of 1.5 million Adélie penguins in Antarctica's Danger Islands, a previously unexplored hotspot for penguins now designated for conservation. Lynch's research group has used satellite imagery and computer vision to look for a range of other animals as well, including petrels, seals, and even whales under the surface of the ocean.

Lynch said there is an "unimaginably long list of things I'm hoping to learn and bring back with me," and hopes to learn as much as she can from scholars during her time there, as well as share the findings of her own research.

"There are a number of faculty in the Department of Biology that work on conservation and I'd be delighted to share what we've learned in the Antarctic if only to spare people going down the same dead ends that we've stumbled into over the years," she said. "This represents the ideal sabbatical situation," she said. "I'll have the time and space to dive into some issues requiring more of my attention than is possible amidst the background of obligations that come with regular duties here on campus."

- Robert Emproto