Daryl Boness ’72, 2013 Leadership and Service Award

Daryl Boness, member of the Class of 1972, you have researched the evolution and ecology of mating systems and parental care patterns in marine mammals, particularly seals, sea lions, and walruses, for the past 40 years. During the course of your research you’ve been charged by a polar bear, stuck on a “boat not fit for sailing” in the roughest part of the Pacific, and stranded in intense winds and polar temperatures.

You are a retired senior scientist with the Smithsonian Institution, where you led the zoological research and conservation biology departments at the National Zoological Park. You are a research professor at the University of Maine and the University of New England and the editor-in-chief of the scientific journal Marine Mammal Science. You’ve published more than 100 scientific papers, book chapters, and major reports.

Most notably, you served for 17 years as a member of the Committee of Scientific Advisors to the Marine Mammal Commission, including chairing the committee for several years, and are the chair of the Marine Mammal Commission, a Presidential appointment requiring Senate approval. The Commission’s main role is to oversee federal agencies with marine mammal mandates and generally advise the government on marine mammal issues and policy.

In these various positions, you have served on a Negotiated Rulemaking Committee to revise marine mammal welfare regulations, advised the President on various related legislation, advised Congress on the impacts of ocean noise on marine mammals and on what should be the nation’s highest priorities in research and conservation efforts regarding, and served on a NASA panel to investigate the possible effects of sonic booms on marine mammals.

You graduated magna cum laude from Cornell with a degree in psychology and biology, and followed that with a master of arts in human psychophysiology from Hollins College in 1973, and a Ph.D. in animal behavior/behavioral ecology from Dalhousie University in 1979. You married your Cornell classmate, Leslie Poland, and raised a daughter together.

Daryl, for your lifelong commitment to the health of the marine mammals and the marine ecosystem and your service to the Smithsonian Institution and the U.S. Marine Mammal Commission, we honor you with the Leadership and Service Award.