Nalini Nadkarni has been called "the queen of forest canopy research," a field that relates directly to three of the most pressing environmental issues of our time: the maintenance of biodiversity, the stability of world climate, and the sustainability of forests. She has spent over two decades climbing the tall trees of Costa Rica, Papua New Guinea, the Amazon, and the Pacific Northwest.

Her early work consisted of climbing and exploring the poorly-known world of plants and animals who live their entire lives in the forest canopy, and understanding how they interact with denizens of the forest floor. In 1994 she realized that there was no central database for storing and analyzing the research she was gathering, so she invented one. This state-of-the-art repository, called the Big Canopy Database, is expected to speed and enable forest-canopy research just as a common database revolutionized the mapping of the human genome.

Nadkarni, a professor at Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington, is credited with using nontraditional means to focus the public's attention on the rain forest. One of her projects involves working with prison inmates to develop ways of growing moss for the horticulture trade in the prison yard, which is helping to relieve collecting pressure of wild-grown mosses from old-growth forests. Her work has also inspired prison-wide changes in practices that enhance sustainability, including recycling, composting, and organic gardens at the corrections facility. Her work has been featured in Glamour magazine and the National Geographic magazine, on PBS and network television, and in a giant-screen film, as well as in traditional science publications.

In her presentations she emphasizes the importance of diversity in all aspects of life, from the rain forest to the boardroom.

The Power of Diversity: In the Rain Forest and in the Workplace
Explore biodiversity at work in the forest and through cleverly drawn parallels with everyday life. This presentation emphasizes the strength we gain when diverse forces come together and enhance the value of one another.

Rain Forest Research From Roots to Treetops
Find out how and why ecologists study the complex world of tropical rain forests.

Branching Out
This project, funded by the National Geographic Conservation Trust, brings together scientists, artists, Native Americans, and the blind to document, celebrate, and conserve nature in the Pacific Northwest and Costa Rica.

Arboreal Images in Art, Myth, Religion, and Poetry
In this lyrical presentation Nadkarni explores the use of trees as an integrative cross-cultural theme in literature, film, medicine, religion, mathematics, and popular culture.