Sara Tjossem

Focus areas: The intersection of science and society, the history of science (particularly biology and ecology in the 20th century), agriculture, marine science, the development of environmental movements and policy

Sara Tjossem is a Senior Lecturer in SIPA’s Master of Public Administration program in Environmental Science and Policy, and the program’s Associate Director of Curriculum. Her teaching and research interests are on the intersection of science and society, the history of science (particularly biology and ecology in the 20th century), agriculture, marine science, and the development of environmental movements and policy.

Tjossem’s book, The Journey to PICES: Scientific Cooperation in the North Pacific (Alaska Sea Grant Press, 2005) traces the events and explores the impediments to the eventual formation of the North Pacific Marine Science Organization in 1992. PICES is now the premier intergovernmental marine organization for the Pacific Ocean, promoting and coordinating advances in marine science.

Other publications include "Scientific Cooperation in the North Pacific: The PICES Project," with Warren S. Wooster in Multilateralism and International Ocean-Resources Law (Law of the Sea Institute, 2004) and several reviews of history of science books and articles.

Tjossem taught history of science at the University of Minnesota from 1995 to1998 and was assistant director of the Institute of Social, Economic and Ecological Sustainability (ISEES) from 1996 to1998. From 1998 to 2003 she served as lecturer and capstone instructor in history and in the Program on the Environment at the University of Washington, Seattle.

Education

• PhD in History of Science, Cornell University
• MS in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Cornell University
• BA, Swarthmore College

Honors & Awards

• Keynote speaker for the 2nd Annual DENVI conference, Helsinki, Finland