Gerald ‘Jerry’ Niemi was director of NRRI's Center for Water and the Environment from 1988-2008. He now holds an appointment as a senior research associate. He is also a tenured professor in the Department of Biology at the University of Minnesota Duluth. Jerry has had over 25 graduate students in biology and conservation biology at the University of Minnesota. He holds graduate appointments in the Integrated Biological Sciences, Conservation Biology, and Chemical Toxicology graduate programs. Jerry has maintained an active research program focusing on birds, the loss of biological diversity, Great Lakes ecosystems, conservation biology, landscape ecology, and sustainable natural resources development. His current projects include 1) bird conservation and management in the Great Lakes region, 2) the Minnesota breeding bird atlas, 3) environmental indicators and thresholds, and 4) predictive models of bird species occurrence in response to human and natural disturbances.