Day: March 14, 2010

Cheetah Conservationists and ecologist win this year’s Tyler Prize

Lisa Schweitzer

Many people do not know that my university, the University of Southern California, is the custodian of the Tyler Prize, an honor given to those working in environmental science, health, and energy. The point of the prize is, not unlike the Nobel, to recognize work that has made exceptional contribution to the environmental field.


This year’s honorees are Laurie Marker of the Cheetah Conservation Fund and Stuart Pimm of Duke University. Both are conservationists; Marker is an expert in ecological restoration. Pimm is a conservation biologist who has written many, many policy papers on the fields.

Here’s the press release:

Winners of 2010 Tyler Environmental Prize Announced – USC News

And here is a listing of past laureates.



Perhaps the best reason to pass a health care plan….

Lisa Schweitzer

The late Mel Webber and I got into a huge debate one day about the external benefits of passenger travel. I argued there were none: there’s always a motivation to capture external benefits. Multipliers are different than externalities. So I’ve never believed in external benefits, but this sort of pronouncement makes me think they may, in fact be possible. Or maybe this would just be a secondary benefit:


Why Rush Limbaugh would go to Costa Rica if Obama’s healthcare plan passes – Yahoo! News