Karen Lips

Biography

Karen Lips joined IIASA as Deputy Director General on 1 July 2024. She is a renowned ecologist who studies global change and its impacts on animal populations, community composition, and ecosystem function in Latin America and the US. She has a particular interest in increasing engagement on environmental issues, promoting scientific leadership, and fostering international scientific collaborations.

From 2022-2023, Lips worked in science diplomacy while serving as Program Director in the Office of International Science and Engineering at the National Science Foundation. She has been a Professor of Biology at the University of Maryland College Park, USA, since 2009, where she was Director of the Graduate Program in Sustainable Development and Conservation Biology from 2009-2015. She served as a Jefferson Science Fellow at the Department of State in the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs, Office of Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs from 2016-2017. As a Jefferson Fellow she spent time as an Embassy Science Fellow in Bogota, Colombia where she worked on biodiversity policies related to the Peace Accords in the Instituto Alexander von Humboldt.

Apart from the esteemed positions she has held over the years, Lips holds various fellowships and has received numerous awards for her work. She is an elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and of the Ecological Society of America; as well as an Aldo Leopold Leadership Fellow. Previously, she held positions as a Research Associate at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute and at the US Museum of Natural History, and as an AAAS Leshner Leadership Public Engagement Fellow. She was awarded the President's Award of the Chicago Zoological Society, a Bay and Paul Biodiversity Leadership Award, the Sabin Amphibian Conservation Award, and the University of Maryland Impact Communicator Award.

Lips has authored over 190 articles (H-index 56; 17,230 citations) and has given more than 250 invited lectures at international conferences and institutions in 13 countries. She holds a BS in Zoology from the University of South Florida, and a PhD in Biology from the University of Miami.

Last update: 09 JUL 2024