Elizabeth Losos is a senior fellow at the Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions at Duke University. She has been exploring policies to mitigate the environmental and social risks from large-scale infrastructure projects in the transportation and energy sectors. Her current work is focusing on promoting the development of sustainable infrastructure as a critical element of the post-COVID-19 recovery.

Dr. Losos formerly was president and CEO of the Organization for Tropical Studies (OTS), a global consortium of universities and research institutes with the mission of promoting education, research, and the responsible use of natural resources in the tropics. Losos directed the organization’s four research stations in Costa Rica and South Africa as well as undergraduate, graduate, and professional field-based educational programs in tropical biology, global health, and environmental policy. Prior to her tenure with OTS, Dr. Losos was the director of the Smithsonian Institution’s Center for Tropical Forest Science, a global network of large-scale forest research plots.

Dr. Losos holds a Ph.D. in ecology and evolutionary biology from Princeton University, a master’s degree in public administration and international affairs from the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton, and a bachelor’s degree from Harvard University.

Fun fact: Working in tropical rainforests, Dr. Losos has had startling encounters with both gorillas (in Gabon) and guerillas (in Peru).