He attended the State University of New York at Purchase, where he earned a B.A. degree in environmental science in 1977. He received M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in ecology from Rutgers University in 1981 and 1987, respectively.

In 1990 Safina founded the Living Oceans Program at the National Audubon Society, where he served for a decade as vice president for ocean conservation. Concurrently, from 1991 to 1994, he served on the Mid-Atlantic Fisheries Management Council of the U.S. Department of Commerce, to which he was appointed by the U.S. Secretary of Commerce.

The winner of both a prestigious Pew Fellowship and a MacArthur Fellowship, Safina has written or co-written four books— Song for the Blue Ocean: Encounters Along the World's Coasts and Beneath the Seas ; Seafood Lover's Almanac ; Eye of the Albatross: Visions of Hope and Survival ; and Voyage of the Turtle: In Pursuit of the Earth's Last Dinosaur .

Safina's first book, Song for the Blue Ocean: Encounters Along the World's Coasts and Beneath the Seas , published in 1998 Safina describes Safina's travels with high-seas fish and fishermen; in the salmon rivers, forests, and coasts of North America's Northwest; and among the coral reefs of the tropical Western Pacific Ocean. He also recounted his experiences with individuals whose work might destroy or preserve those locales.

In 2000 Safina co-wrote (with Mercedes Lee and Suzanne Iudicello) Seafood Lover's Almanac , a guide for those who love to eat seafood but are concerned about depleting fish and shellfish populations. The volume includes tips on recipes, suggestions for healthful eating, and information on nutritional values, along with alternatives to eating overfished species.

Safina's next book, Eye of the Albatross: Visions of Hope and Survival (2002), followed a Laysan albatross, which he named Amelia, throughout one breeding season, detailing both the dangers Amelia and her kin faced and the remarkable feats they accomplished, such as living for up to 60 years and flying, as individuals, millions of miles in total.

Safina has engaged in to many successful conservation efforts. He has helped ban high-seas driftnets and overhaul federal fisheries laws in the U.S. He has persuaded fishermen to call for and abide by international agreements to restore depleted populations of tuna, sharks, and other fish, as well as creatures that constitute bycatch or bykill (marine life unintentionally captured by fishermen), such as dolphins and sea turtles. In 1995 he was a force behind the passage of a new fisheries treaty through the United Nations, and in 1996 the U.S. Congress incorporated some of his ideas in the Sustainable Fisheries Act, which required rebuilding of marine-life populations depleted by fishing. In the late 1990s Safina also raised awareness of declining shark populations, and by 1998, in the absence of an official recovery plan, he and other activists had succeeded in persuading several prominent restaurateurs in Boston , New York , and Washington , D.C. , to remove swordfish from their menus.

In 2000 Safina won a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Fellowship, popularly known as the "genius" grant. His other honors include the International Game Fish Association Conservation Award, the Pew Charitable Trust's Scholar's Award in Conservation and the Environment, the American Fisheries Society's Carl R. Sullivan Conservation Award, and recognition from Rutgers University as the most distinguished alumnus to graduate from the ecology and evolution program. He has received honorary doctorates from Long Island University and SUNY. Audubon magazine named him one of the top 100 conservationists of the 20th century, and the World Wildlife Fund named him a senior fellow in its Marine Conservation Program. Safina is a visiting fellow at Yale University , an adjunct professor at Stony Brook University , and an elected member of the Explorers Club. In addition to his books, Safina has written upwards of 100 articles for scientific and popular journals.

Safina is greatly concerned with the "embattlement of reason and science." He believes "that information must be conveyed in the context of values, and that we must reinvigorate veneration of reason and fuse it with a renewed quest toward truly traditional values of peace, compassion, generosity of spirit, and love."

Edward Kaplan, Ph.D., of Stony Brook, NY, is a Scientist at Brookhaven National Laboratory where he has conducted research and project management in diverse areas as environmental impacts of energy technologies, radiological dose assessments of people exposed to fallout from nuclear bomb tests, development of technologies and sensors for ultra-low levels of radionuclides, disposal of high level radioactive wastes, acid rain impacts, groundwater models, and risk assessments. He is currently involved in providing technical assistance to materials control and accounting programs in countries of the former Soviet Union, where he is a frequent visitor, as well as providing consulting to BNL's Directorate on environmental, health, and safety issues.
Dr. Kaplan is also a Visiting Professor in the Dept of Technology and Society at Stony Brook University, where he helped to develop a masters program in environmental and waste management, and where he teaches Principles of Environmental Systems Analyses, as well as Numerical Modeling. He serves as a masters thesis advisor, is a member of Editorial Board, Journal of Environmental Systems, and belongs to the American Geophysical Union and the Health Physics Society (where he is a member of the Committee on Homeland Security). He is also an active member of BNL's Community Advisory Council and Peconic River and Graphite Reactor Working Groups, where he provides expertise in areas related to environmental remediation. Dr. Kaplan is also a founder and trustee of Friends of Brookhaven, a group seeking to improve the quality of life and science at BNL.
Dr. Kaplan has taught at Antioch Northeast Graduate School and Swarthmore College, and has worked for Argonne National Laboratory and the General Electric Company. He is a former chairperson of the Town of Brookhaven's Conservation Advisory Council, and has served on professional committees of the Suffolk County Water Authority, the American Society of Civil Engineers, the Association of Ground Water Scientists and Engineers, and the International Water Supply Association. He has edited texts on Risk Assessment for Groundwater Pollution Control and Detection, Control, and Renovation of Contaminated Ground Water for the American Society of Civil Engineers, has contributed chapters on multiobjective reservoir optimization for Water Resources Publications, and has published more than 50 articles in professional and peer-reviewed journals.

George Locker received his B.A. magna cum laude from Stony Brook University in 1971 and his J.D. from New York University in 1974. He is a practicing trial lawyer in New York City with an expertise in tenant's rights. His public interest work includes research, writing and speaking about the history and legal aspects of the eviction laws, and the economics and politics of the housing shortage in New York City.
When George Locker first entered Stony Brook University, he met Professor Ashley Schiff, who was Master of Cardozo College. His high ethical standards and brutal honesty had a lasting positive effect on his own life. During George's early years at Stony Brook, the students endured a drug raid, two student strikes, a few government investigations, coverage in the NY Times, and an abundance of student activism -- innumerable study groups, teach-ins, marches, meetings and demonstrations against the Vietnam War, against undercover agents, for democratization of campus governance, improving living conditions, controlling the mud and minimizing blackouts.
George Locker's current environmental interests include paddling and camping as far into remote Adirondack wilderness as is humanly possible. He helped to form SBEC in part to obtain forever-wild status for the Ashley Schiff Memorial Forest Preserve, as yet unachieved more than 30 years after its dedication.
Professor Schiff knew that the natural areas open and available to Stony Brook University and the surrounding community could be greatly enhanced if the University did its share to adopt enlightened land-use policies and set aside open space for permanent public enjoyment. Mr. Locker looks forward to working with old and new friends on the SBEC to achieve those ends.

John Robinson, Ph.D. of Poquott, NY, is Associate Professor and Head of the Program in Biopsychology in the Department of Psychology, Stony Brook University. Dr. Robinson received his PhD in physiological psychology in 1991 from University of New Hampshire and was a staff fellow in behavioral neuropharmacology at the National Institute of Mental Health before coming to Stony Brook in 1994. He is a recipient of the State University of New York Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Teaching, and has served as a member and chair of the Campus Environment Committee of the Stony Brook University Senate since 1998. He is a member the Zoning and Planning Commission and the Environment Committee of the Village of Poquott, and is an avid runner, cyclist, and backpacker.

Muriel Weyl was the Program Coordinator at Cardozo College at Stony Brook University who participated in the acquisition of the commemorative Ashley Schiff Nature Preserve when Professor Schiff died in 1969 at the early age of 37. During her years as Program Coordinator, she was also a counselor in the Mid-Career Program at the University. She retired in 1995 after serving for fourteen years as the administrator of the Department of Urology at the Stony Brook University Medical School. She obtained a B.A. degree in Sociology from the University of New Hampshire and an M.S. degree in Counseling from Long Island University. For four years she operated her own businesses in counseling and business placements. Always interested in public affairs and the arts, she was the founder and the chairperson for two years of the local chapter in Mid-Suffolk County of the National Organization for Women. She has lectured under the sponsorship of the U.S. State Department on the contemporary role of women in the United States during visits to Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia and Chile. She participated in the administration of the Houston headqaurters of the Kennedy presidential campaign and initiated and managed the campaign in Corvallis, Oregon for Lyndon Johnson's presidency. She has been actively involved in building the Greater Port Jefferson/Northern Brookhaven Arts Council and has served for six years as its chairperson. She is still a vice-president of that organization.

Robert de Zafra, Professor of Physics and astronomy, Stony Brook University; Three Village Community Trust

Robert de Zafra is an emeritus faculty member and current Research Professor of Physics at S.U.N.Y, Stony Brook, specializing in anthropogenic changes in the earth's atmosphere which alter the ozone layer and cause climate change. He has also been a member of the Town-appointed Historic District Advisory Committee, Chairman of the Town-appointed Rt. 25A Advisory Committee, a 40-year board member of the Civic Association of the Setaukets, as whose president he served twice, (in the late 1960's and again in the late 1990s), a steering committee member for the Coalition for the Preservation of Stony Brook Village, and most recently, a founding member of the Three Village Community Trust.