Elizabeth Losos

Elizabeth Losos is an executive in residence at the Nicholas Institute and adjunct professor at the Nicholas School of the Environment. She explores how to plan for and optimize the environmental impact of infrastructure expansion in Asia, Africa, and Europe that is stimulated by China’s new silk road initiative.

Losos formerly was president and CEO of the Organization for Tropical Studies (OTS), a global consortium of universities and research institutes with the mission of promoting education, research, and the responsible use of natural resources in the tropics. Losos directed the organization’s four research stations in Costa Rica and South Africa as well as undergraduate, graduate, and professional field-based educational programs in tropical biology, conservation, global health, and environmental policy. Prior to her tenure with OTS, Losos was the director of the Smithsonian Institution’s Center for Tropical Forest Science, a global network of large-scale forest demography plots.

Losos holds a Ph.D. in ecology and evolutionary biology from Princeton University, a master’s degree in public administration and international affairs from the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton, and a bachelor’s degree from Harvard University.