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Earth Institute Environmental Anthropologist Kenneth Broad has been selected as a 2006 National Geographic Emerging Explorer. Broad holds an adjunct research position at the International Research Institute for Climate and Society and is on the executive committee of the Center for Research on Environmental Decisions, both a part of The Earth Institute at Columbia University, and is an assistant professor at the University of Miami's Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science.
The award recognizes young adventurers, scientists, photographers and storytellers who are making a difference early in their career and includes a $10,000 prize for further research and exploration. National Geographic selected Broad because of his work investigating the relationship between climate, society and natural resource management, and for his explorations of challenging underwater environments. The Emerging Explorers program is supported by Microsoft and the Catherine B. Reynolds Foundation.
"It's a nice surprise since I had no idea I was nominated," said Broad, who is a certified cave diver. "The funding will go toward an interdisciplinary expedition to the Bahamas to map, study and film the cultural and ecological significance of the underwater caves, locally referred to as 'boiling holes.' It's an ecosystem that means a lot to both humans and to the health of the wider environment and is very understudied."
Broad studies climate impacts and human perception in Latin America and the Caribbean, the use and misuse of scientific information, decision making under uncertainty, marine protected areas and issues of societal equity. His work involves close collaboration with hydrologists, oceanographers, economists, ecologists and climatologists. Broad has also taken part in and led scientific and film expeditions around the globe, including the exploration of one of the world's deepest caves in Mexico's Huautla Plateau, and is featured in the book Beyond the Deep: The Deadly Descent Into the World's Most Treacherous Cave.
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