As director of the graduate educational program in Resilience and Adaptation at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, Chapin studies human-fire interactions in the boreal forest.
As President of ESA, he plans to address the "critical issue" of planetary stewardship.
[2] With Mary Power and Steward Pickett, Chapin is leading a Planetary Stewardship initiative "whose goal is to reorient society toward a more sustainable relationship with the biosphere.
[4] The jury citation states: "Professor Terry Chapin is not only a world-leading ecologist, he is also one of the world's most profound thinkers and actors on stewardship of the Earth System.
[...] His work will have a long-lasting impact on the ways we seek to build a sustainable future, with the concept of Earth Stewardship supporting the deep institutional and structural change required to meet the challenges ahead.