Dr. Mark Nelson is a founding director of the Institute of Ecotechnics and has worked for several decades in closed ecological system research, ecological engineering, the restoration of damaged ecosystems, desert agriculture and orchardry, and wastewater recycling. He is Chairman and CEO of the Institute of Ecotechnics, a U.K. and U.S. non-profit organization, which consults to several demonstration projects working in challenging biomes around the world as well as Vice Chairman of Global Ecotechnics Corp. and head of Wastewater Gardens International.
He served as Director of Space and Environmental Applications for Space Biospheres Ventures, which created and operated Biosphere 2, the 3.15 acre materially closed facility near Tucson, Arizona, the world''s first laboratory for global ecology. Dr. Nelson was a member of the eight person biospherian" crew for the first two year closure experiment, 1991-1993. His research inside included litterfall/decomposition in the tropical biomes, population dynamics and biomass increase, sustainable agricultural system, and constructed wetland sewage treatment system. Publications include The Wastewater Gardener: Preserving the Planet One Flush at a Time (Synergetic Press, 2014), co-authoring Life Under Glass and Space Biospheres, editing Biological Life Support Technologies: Commercial Opportunities and numerous chapters in books on space life support systems. Dr. Nelson was a Contributing Editor of the journal, Life Support and Biosphere Science from 1993-2002, Vice Chairman of the life science sessions on Closed Ecological Systems for COSPAR (the International Committee on Space Research of the ICSU) and an Associate Editor for the journal, Advances in Space Research, 2000-2013, and is currently an Associate Editor of Life Sciences in Space Research.
A summa cum laude graduate of Dartmouth College, Mark received his M.S. from the School of Renewable Natural Resources, University of Arizona and is currently working on his Ph.D. at the University of Florida in Environmental Engineering Sciences and the Center for Wetlands. Abigail Kingsley Alling co-founded the non-profit organization, Biosphere Foundation (BF), in 1991 while living inside Biosphere 2 and continues today as its President and Chief Executive Officer. Biosphere Foundation''s primary goal is to inspire intelligent stewardship of our biosphere. At present, BF''s projects are based onboard its research vessel, Mir, where its team has initiated coral reef, sea turtle and marine mammal conservation programs in Asia.
At Biosphere 2 (1986-1994), Abigail managed its research program and created & operated the largest artificial ecological marine system - a 1,000,000-gallon mangrove marsh and coral reef. She has sailed the world''s oceans including a voyage to the Antarctic Peninsula to study humpback whale population genetics in collaboration with the National Cancer Research Institute. In the early eighties she lived in Sri Lanka for five years to set up a marine mammal sanctuary with WWF, UNEP and the National Aquatic Resource Agency and in 1987, she was the marine biologist who supervised the historic first successful release of two captive bottlenose dolphins back to the wild. Abigail is a Fellow of the Academy of Arts & Sciences, New York Academy of Sciences, Linnaean Society and Explorers Club. She graduated from Middlebury College (Biology) with Honors and received a Masters in Environmental Sciences with Honors from Yale University. A graduate of Sheffield Hallam University in England, Sally Silverstone has traveled widely, including working in the field in East Africa and then to India where she spent several years working on food and agricultural projects with native populations. Later, she went to Puerto Rico where she worked for Tropic Ventures on a 1200 acre rainforest enrichment project, of which she is now the Executive in charge for EcoFrontiers Company. From 1987 - 1991 she was responsible for the management and coordination of the architectural division operations, financial administration and cost control for Space Biospheres Ventures, the company which built and operated Biosphere 2.
In 1991 she joined the first team of eight researchers as co-captain and food systems manager for the historic two-year mission living and working inside of the Biosphere 2 facility. A Fellow of the Explorers Club, Sally is currently vice-president of Agricultural Systems for Cyberspheres, Inc. She has published several papers on the agricultural systems of Biosphere 2 and of a popular cookbook, Eating In: From the Field to the Kitchen in Biosphere 2.".