Dr. Francis Stuart Chapin III is professor of ecology in the Institute of Arctic Biology at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. In 1962, he went to Swathmore College to study Economics. However, an introductory biology class convinced him to change his area of study, and in1966 he graduated with a B.A. degree in Biology. After graduating, he served tow years in the Peace Corps as a Visiting Instructor in Biology at the Universidad Javeriana in Bogotá, Colombia. He returned to the U.S. to continue his education, and in 1973 he received a Ph.D. in Biological Sciences from Stanford University. After graduating, he became an Associate Professor at the University of Alaska in Fairbanks. He also became the Assistant Director of the university's Institute of Arctic Biology. In 1984 he was made a full professor. In 1989, he moved to become Professor of Integrative Biology at the University of California in Berkeley. In 1996 he returned to the University of Alaska. In 2004, he was elected to the National Academy of Sciences. His research focuses on entire ecological and social systems and their vulnerability or resilience to change, specifically to human-induced climate change.