John Cronin
Director and Chief Executive Officer
Beacon Institute for Rivers and Estuaries
Senior Fellow for Environmental Affairs
Pace Academy for Applied Environmental Studies
Pace University
“If the 20th century was the era of environmental brawn, the 21st century is the era of environmental brains.”
--John Cronin
Photo credit: Lynda Shenkman Curtis
John Cronin
For 35 years, John Cronin has dedicated his career to environment and innovation. For his accomplishments, Time magazine named him a “Hero for the Planet” and People magazine described him as “equal parts detective, scientist and public advocate.”
Cronin has worked as an activist, legislative and congressional aide, commercial fisherman, professor, author and filmmaker. He is known internationally for his Hudson River work, for which the Wall Street Journal called him “a unique presence on America’s major waterways.” He served as Hudson Riverkeeper from 1983 – 2000, a position that has inspired a legacy of 200 Waterkeeper programs that fight pollution on six continents.
As director of Beacon Institute, Cronin has adopted technological innovation as the research center’s central mission. Its River and Estuary Observatory Network (REON), created in collaboration with IBM and Clarkson University, uses the Hudson as a test site for a network of sensors and robotics that provide real-time data to researchers, policy makers and educators that will be emulated on rivers and estuaries worldwide.
As Senior Fellow in Environmental Affairs at the Pace Academy for Applied Environmental Studies, a Pace University Center for Excellence, Cronin is heading the formation of a science, technology and policy center, and creating a program of undergraduate and graduate studies in applied knowledge for the next generation of environmental leaders.
Cronin is the founder of the Environmental Consortium of Hudson Valley Colleges and Universities. He co-authored The Riverkeepers, written with Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and published by Scribner with an introduction by former Vice President Al Gore. He has written numerous articles, including for the Op Ed page of The New York Times. He wrote and co-produced the film “The Last Rivermen,” named an outstanding documentary by the Motion Picture Academy Foundation.
Cronin lectures nationally on our environmental future, with a special focus on innovation and policy. “If the 20th century was the era of environmental brawn, the 21st century is the era of environmental brains,” he tells his audiences. “By harnessing the talent, intellect, and passion that resides in every segment of American society, we can harmonize forever the human and natural worlds. This is our greatest challenge in the 21st century.”
In addition to being named a Time magazine Hero for the Planet, Cronin’s many awards and honors include an Honorary Juris Doctor from Pace University School of Law, the William E. Ricker Award from the American Fisheries Society, and the Thomas Berry Environmental Award. He has been the subject of two books and extensive major media print and broadcast news stories, documentaries and profiles.
The Knight-Ridder newspapers praised John Cronin as a “hero in one of the great success stories of the modern environmental movement.”
