Greg Asner is Director of the Center for Global Discovery and Conservation Science, an Arizona State University research unit based in Hilo, Hawaiʻi. Following service as a U.S. Navy Diver, he studied at the University of Hawaiʻi and worked at The Nature Conservancy of Hawaiʻi. Asner received his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Colorado (1997) based on his conservation research on Molokaʻi and Hawaiʻi islands. In 2000, he joined the Carnegie Institution for Science, where he led the Pacific Ridge- to-Reef Program and the Carnegie Airborne Observatory in Hilo, providing ecosystem mapping and monitoring services to State and federal agencies. In 2018, he co-founded the Hawaiʻi Marine Education and Research Center, a non-profit convening center for communities and government agencies on Hawaiʻi Island. In 2019, Arizona State University hired Asner in Hawaiʻi, naming him professor and director to advance solutions-oriented research and education in coastal and marine conservation. In 2023, he founded the ʻĀkoʻakoʻa Reef Restoration Program in collaboration with the Hawaiʻi Division of Aquatic Resources and communities on West Hawaiʻi island. Dr. Asner’s scientific efforts focus on large-scale land and reef ecosystem diagnostics, restoration, and decision-making using extensive field work, community engagement, airborne and satellite mapping, and computer modeling. He has published more than 950 scientific reports and has served numerous state, national, and international programs. Asner’s career recognition includes a NASA Career Award (2000), Presidential Career Award (2000), America Geophysical Union Fellow (2015), Ecological Society of America Fellow (2016), and Heinz Award for Environment (2017). In 2013, he was elected to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences. Asner is honored to serve on the Governor’s Advisory Committee on Marine Affairs and is excited to support the State’s vital marine cultural, environmental, and economic sustainability efforts.
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