What is Robert Costanza?
[[Image:Robert Costanza.jpg|thumb|150px|Robert Costanza]] '''Robert Costanza''' (born 14 September 1950) is an American [[Ecology|ecological]] [[economist]] and the Gund Professor of [[Ecology|Ecological]] [[economics]] and Director of the Gund Institute for Ecological Economics at the University of [[Vermont]]. == Biography == Robert Costanza was born in [[Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania]]. He studied [[architecture]] and urban and regional planning from the [[University of Florida]] and got a Masters degree. He received his Ph.D. from the [[University of Florida]] in 1979 in systems [[ecology]], with a minor in [[economics]]. In 1982, he was selected as a Kellogg National Fellow, in 1992 he was awarded the Society for Conservation Biology Distinguished Achievement Award and in 1993 he was selected as a Pew Scholar in Conservation and the Environment. In 1998, he was awarded the Kenneth Boulding Memorial Award for Outstanding Contributions in Ecological Economics. In 2000, he received an honorary doctorate in natural sciences from Stockholm University. Before he moved to Vermont in August 2002, he was director of the University of Maryland, College Park Institute for Ecological Economics, and a professor in the Center for Environmental Science, at Solomons, and in the Biology Department at College Park. Costanza is co-founder and past-president of the International Society for Ecological Economics (ISEE) and was chief editor of the society’s journal ''Ecological Economics'' from its inception until 9/02. He serves on the editorial board of eight other international academic journals. He is president of the International Society for Ecosystem Health. == Work == Dr. Costanza's research has focused on the interface between [[ecosystem|ecological]] and [[Economics|economic]] [[system]]s. This includes landscape level spatial [[simulation]] [[modeling]]; analysis of energy and material flows through economic and ecological systems; valuation of [[ecosystem services]], [[biodiversity]], and [[natural capital]];