Dr. Jonathan (Jon) Foley is the Executive Director of Project Drawdown, and independent and internationally trusted organization that provides science-based guidance to climate solutions and strategies. A world-renowned environmental scientist, sustainability expert, and public speaker, Foley focuses on understanding our changing planet and finding new solutions to sustain the climate, ecosystems, and natural resources we all depend on.

AAG recognizes Foley with its highest award for his groundbreaking research and advisory support to leaders and groups in all sectors, around the world. His work has contributed to the understanding of global ecosystems, food security and the environment, climate change, and sustainability. His more than 130 peer-reviewed scientific articles that have been widely cited. In 2014, Thomson Reuters named him a Highly Cited Researcher in ecology and environmental science, placing him among the top 1 percent most-cited global scientists.

Foley is a gifted science communicator whose presentations have been featured at hundreds of international venues such as the Aspen Institute, the World Bank, the National Geographic Society, the Chautauqua Institution, the Commonwealth Club, the National Science March in Washington, D.C., and TED.com. He has taught at major universities on topics ranging from climate change and global sustainability solutions to the future of the food system and addressing the world’s “grand challenges.” He has written popular pieces for National Geographic, the New York Times, the Guardian, and Scientific American, and others; and is frequently interviewed by international media outlets, such as National Public Radio, the PBS NewsHour, the BBC, CNN, and more. Foley appeared in the HBO documentary on climate change “Too Hot Not to Handle,” and the film series “Let Science Speak.” Foley’s leadership before Project Drawdown launching the Climate, People, and Environment Program (CPEP) while at the University of Wisconsin from 1993 to 2008, where he also founded the Center for Sustainability and the Global Environment (SAGE) and served as the first Gaylord Nelson Distinguished Professor of Environmental Studies. From 2008 to 2014, he served as the founding director of the Institute on the Environment (IonE) at the University of Minnesota, where he also held the McKnight Presidential Chair of Global Environment and Sustainability. Between 2014 and 2018, he was the executive director of the California Academy of Sciences, the world’s greenest and most forward-thinking science museum.

His numerous awards and honors include the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, awarded by President Clinton; the J.S. McDonnell Foundation’s 21st Century Science Award; an Aldo Leopold Leadership Fellowship; the Sustainability Science Award from the Ecological Society of America; the National Science Foundation’s Faculty Early Career Development Award; and the Founders’ Medal from the Native Plant Society. He also received the prestigious Heinz Award for the Environment.

Marcia McNutt, for her trailblazing career as a leading scientist, as President and CEO of the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, Editor-in-Chief of the Science family of journals, first woman Director of the US Geological Survey (decorated for her leadership in the response to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill), and current President of the National Academy of Sciences.

In 2019, Dr. Carla Hayden was presented with the fifth Atlas Award during the Annual Meeting in Washington, DC.

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In 2017, Professor Noam Chomsky was presented with the fourth Atlas Award during the Annual Meeting in Boston, Massachusetts.

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In 2014, Dr. Julian Bond was presented with the third Atlas Award during the Annual Meeting in Tampa, Florida.

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In 2012, Dr. Mary Robinson was presented with the second AAG Atlas Award during the Annual Meeting in New York, New York.

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In 2012, Jane Goodall was presented with the inaugural AAG Atlas Award during the Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C.

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