User:Samjacobsen/Leopold

Estella B. Leopold (born 1927) is a botanist and a conservationist. Her work done with the United States Geological Survey aided in uncovering records of plant life from the Miocene Epoch around the Eniwetok and Bikini atolls in the southern region of the Pacific Ocean and from the Tertiary Period  in the Rocky Mountains. Leopold’s work as a conservationist includes taking legal action to help save a fossil bed in Colorado and fighting pollution.

Education
Leopold was born in Madison Wisconsin. She graduated with a degree in botany from the University of Wisconsin in 1948, attained her master’s in botany from the University of California at Berkeley in 1950, and completed a Ph.D. in botany from Yale University in 1955. At Yale, Leopold began to specialize in studying pollen on a dare from an advisor.

Work with United States Geological Society, 1955-1976
Out of her Ph.D. program, Dr. Leopold took a job with the United States Geological Survey. Her work studying drilled cores containing pollen from the Miocene Epoch, revealed evidence of a tropical rainforest in the Eniwetok and Bikini atoll area of the Pacific Ocean.

By studying the Rocky Mountains in Colorado, Idaho, and Wyoming; Dr. Leopold helped recreate the paleoenvironment of the Tertiary Period.

Conservation
Dr. Leopold’s work in Colorado led her to an area with lots of fossil deposition. The area was to be converted into a real estate company until Dr. Leopold and a couple of others filed suit against it. On August 20, 1969, the 6,000 acre area was dubbed, Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument. More conservation actions taken by Dr. Leopold include; helping to stop proposed oil shale development in western Colorado, helping to stop dams from being built in the Grand Canyon, and helping stop shipping of high-level nuclear materials through the Strait of Juan de Fuca and Puget Sound.

Honoraria
Conservationist-of-the-Year-Award from the Colorado Wildlife Federation, 1969

Election to the prestigious National Academy of Sciences, 1974

Keep Colorado Beautiful annual award, 1976

International Cosmos Prize for contributions to conservation, 2010