WINNER 2017: Sylvia Earle is the winner of The Rachel Carson Prize 2017

The legendary American marine biologist Sylvia Earle is awarded the Norwegian Rachel Carson Prize 2017 for her groundbreaking work as oceanographer, explorer, author and lecturer. She has a deep commitment to the marine environment and has been at the forefront of research of the vast oceans depths for more than 40 years. She has been given the nickname “Her Deepness” by The New Yorker, “Living Legend” of the Library of Congress and “Hero for the Planet” of Time Magazine.

Sylvia Earle has led more than 100 expeditions and clocked more than 7,000 hours underwater. She was captain of the first fully female team to live under water in 1970, and with her research colleagues received a reception at the White House. In 1979 she did a deeper solo dive than any other woman before or since. In the 1980s, she started Deep Ocean Engineering and Deep Ocean Technologies to design subsea vessels for previously unavailable depths. In the early 1990s she worked as Chief Scientist at the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration.

Few people have done more to create engagement, strengthen research and knowledge, and contribute to a better marine environment than Sylvia Earle. She won the TED-talk award in 2009 and fights relentlessly to ensure that marine conservation areas cover 20 % of the world’s ocean by 2020.

We are proud to welcome this remarkable woman to Norway and to Stavanger in October to receive the prize.

The Norwegian Rachel Carson Prize is an international environmental award presented in Stavanger every second year. The prize was founded in 1991 and Sylvia Earle is the 14th recipient of the prize. The prize is awarded to a woman who has made a significant contribution to our physical habitat nationally or internationally. The prize aim to highlight women’s contributions for a better living environment and inspire creativity and innovation. It consists of prize money and the bronze statue “ The Cormorant” by the artist Irma Bruun Hodne.

Prize committee of 2017: Fiona Provan (Senior Researcher at IRIS), Bente Bakke (Politician for the Green Party) and Nina Jensen (Secretary General WWF).

Board of Directors of the Rachel Carson Prize: Heather Bergsland, Anne Elisabeth Carlsen, Anne Tone Nag Fjermestad, Bodil Lande, Torunn Larsen and Eline Vigre.

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