Jesse Huntley Ausubel began his professional career as an Alfred P. Sloan Fellow (1977–1979) working with the National Research Council’s Climate Research Board founded and chaired by Robert M. White. In this capacity he helped establish the US National and World Climate Programs and organize the first  UN World Climate Conference (1979). In 1979–1981 he led the climate task of the resources and environment group at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) before returning to Washington to work for the NRC Board on Atmospheric Sciences and Climate. In 1983–1988 he was director of NAE programs during Dr. White’s presidency. Since 1989 Mr. Ausubel has served on the faculty of the Rockefeller University, where he established and leads the Program for the Human Environment, whose goal is to elaborate the technical vision of a large, prosperous society that emits little or nothing harmful and spares large amounts of land and sea for nature. In addition, since 1994 he has helped initiate and manage basic science programs of the Sloan Foundation, including the Census of Marine Life, Barcode of Life Initiative, Encyclopedia of Life, and Deep Carbon Observatory. He also initiated the International Quiet Ocean Experiment, now getting under way. He is closely associated with notions of decarbonization, dematerialization, land sparing, and industrial ecology, a field incubated at the NAE. A fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Mr. Ausubel has received honorary doctorates for his contributions to environmental sciences from Dalhousie University and the University of St. Andrews, as well as the Peter Benchley Prize for Ocean Sciences and the National Ocean Champion Award from Monmouth University. He is vice chair of the Richard Lounsbery Foundation.