P. Dee Boersma, Mt. Pleasant native, is penguin expert.
World's Leading Expert on Penguins Started at Central Michigan University
September 16, 2012
By: Dave Rogers
Dr. P. Dee Boersma grew up in Mt. Pleasant, Michigan, far from the habitat of penguins.
Yet today she is perhaps the world's authority on penguins.
As a student at Central Michigan University, the young Ms. Boersma was a member of CMU's board of trustees -- indicating her promise now fulfilled in academia.
"Boersma's academic research is in the area of conservation biology and has focused on seabirds as indicators of environmental change," comments the University of Washington where she holds the Wadsworth Endowed Chair in Conservation Science in the University of Washington's department of Biology.
She has been at the University of Washington since 1974, initially as professor of Zoology and then as professor of Biology following the merger of the Zoology, Biology and Botany departments. She was Acting Chair of the Biology department from 2005 to 2006 and is an adjunct faculty member in the Women Studies department.
Since 1982, she has directed the Magellanic Penguin Project at Punta Tombo, Argentina, in her role as a scientific fellow for the Wildlife Conservation Society. Since then, she has carried out research on Magellanic penguins in the South Atlantic, assessing their biological characteristics and the effects of human perturbations and policy changes on their survival.
Dr. Boersma has also been enlisted to take on numerous national and international leadership and advisory positions in such diverse roles as member of the Board of Trustees of Central Michigan University, as an advisor to the United States Delegation to the United Nations World Population Conference in Romania, as a member of President Nixon's Task Force of Women's Rights and Responsibilities, and as a member of the Board of Directors of Zero Population Growth. In addition, Professor Boersma was associate director of the Institute for Environmental Studies from 1987-1993.
Her educational resume includes: Honorary Doctorate, 2003, Central Michigan University, Mt. Pleasant, Michigan;
Ph.D. Zoology, 1974, Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio;
B.Sc.(Honors) Biology, 1969, Central Michigan University, Mt. Pleasant, Michigan.
The Center for Penguins as Ocean Sentinels was launched April 4, 2009 in the College of Arts and Science at the University of Washington. The Center is built on four pillars: The Penguin Project, The International Penguin Society, Conservation Magazine, and Volunteer Student Research and Education Programs.
The Penguin Sentinels (formerly called The Penguin Project) was launched in 1982 by the Wildlife Conservation Society and the Province of Chubut to protect and study the largest Magellanic penguin colony in the world at Punta Tombo, Argentina. A small group of researchers under the direction of Dr. Dee Boersma follow individual penguins, monitor the colony, and develop the data needed to plan effective conservation efforts.
Dr. Boersma has been honored for her extensive field studies on penguins and other sea birds which she has used to promote understanding of the human impact on marine ecosystems and for advocating conservation through education, research and policy. She considers penguins marine sentinels, at great risk, sounding the alarm on environmental threats to ocean ecosystems.
Her research in Argentina has shown that in the last decade, climate-induced change has forced the penguins to swim about 25 miles farther during incubation in search of food.
Working with the Wildlife Conservation Society, she provided the data that resulted in the government moving tanker lanes farther from shore to protect the penguins from petroleum pollution.
She founded and is now the executive editor of Conservation magazine, an award-winning publication dedicated to conservation science.
Dr. Boersma is the daughter of the late Henry Boersma and Vivian Anspach Boersma. Her grandfather, Charles Anspach, was a longtime president of Central Michigan University.
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