George Divoky

OrganizationEmailPhoneAddressSeattle , Washington 98112United StatesBioGeorge Divoky is the founder of Friends of Cooper Island and serves as its director. He has studied seabirds in arctic Alaska since 1970 and has participated in studies and assessments related to oil and gas development and regional climate change. Since 1975 he has maintained a continuing study of Black Guillemots on Cooper Island, Alaska, in the western Beaufort Sea. The study is one of the longest longitudinal bird studies in the Arctic and its findings on the consequences of decadal-scale reductions in snow and sea ice provide some of the best examples of the biological consequences of climate change.

Divoky’s research was featured in a cover story in the New York Times Magazine entitled “George Divoky’s Planet,” in the Scientific American Frontiers program “Hot Times in Alaska” and on ABC Nightly News and Nightline. He was a guest on The Late Show with David Letterman and his work and findings were featured in a play about climate change, Greenland, presented at the Royal National Theatre in London in 2011.

Interests

Sea Ice

Science Specialties

ornithology, marine ecology, climate change

Current Research

Conducting long-term monitoring of a Black Guillemot colony in northern Alaska