Laurie Marker of the Cheetah Conservation Fund and Stuart Pimm of Duke University join a distinguished group of laureates for their seminal work restoring and protecting animals and their habitats

Los Angeles, CA (1 April 2010)—Two conservationists who have dedicated their lives to protecting and restoring endangered species from the brink of extinction and ensure their habitat remains for generations to come will share the 2010 Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement, one of the world's first international environmental awards to be established. Since its inception in 1973, the Tyler Prize continues to be the premier award for environmental science, environmental health and energy, given to those who confer great benefit upon humankind through environmental restoration and achievement.

The Tyler Prize honors exceptional foresight and dedication in the environmental sciences—qualities that mirror the prescience of the Prize's founders, John and Alice Tyler, who established it while the environmental debate was still in its infancy. As Tyler Prize recipients, Laurie Marker and Stuart Pimm will join a distinguished group of past laureates including Edward O. Wilson, recognized for his early work on the theory of island biogeography; Jane Goodall, selected for her seminal studies on the behavior and ecology of chimpanzees and her impact on wildlife awareness and environmental conservation; Jared Diamond, a renowned author who gave birth to the discipline of conservation biology; and Thomas Lovejoy, a central figure in alerting the world to the critical problem of dwindling tropical forests.

This year, the award, consisting of a $200,000 cash prize and gold medals, goes to Dr. Laurie Marker, the co-founder and executive director of the Cheetah Conservation Fund in Otjiwarongo, Namibia, and Professor Stuart Pimm, the Doris Duke Professor of Conservation Ecology at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina.

"Dr. Marker and Dr. Pimm represent the best among conservationist leaders and possess the unique intersection of superb environmental and biological science with savvy political and advocacy skills,"said Tyler Prize Executive Committee Chair Owen T. Lind, Professor of Biology, Baylor University. "They are living, breathing heroes of our environment and our animal species on earth."

Marker's nomination for the Tyler Prize was initiated by a former U.S. Ambassador to Namibia, Jeffrey Bader. In his letter of nomination, Bader called Marker "literally and figuratively a force of nature," describing the work of the Cheetah Conservation Fund as "the most successful project I have ever seen to protect the world's biodiversity."