and health for the U.S. Congress and led and participated in numerous congressional briefings. Chivian is recognized as a leading proponent of efforts to create a greater awareness amongst policy makers and the public of the importance of biodiversity to human health, an issue on which he has contributed several book chapters, and published many scientific papers, literature reviews, and editorials. Chivian is the senior editor and author, with CHGE associate Aaron Bernstein, of Sustaining Life: How Human Health Depends on Biodiversity, published in June 2008 by Oxford University Press and co-sponsored by the United Nations Development Programme, the United Nations Environment Programme, the United Nations Secretariat's Convention on Biological Diversity, and the World Conservation Union (IUCN). The book was launched at UN Headquarters, the Smithsonian Institution, and at the UN Convention on Biological Diversity Conference of the Parties meeting in Bonn, Germany in 2008. The book includes contributions from over 100 leading biodiversity and health scientists, and has been widely praised for its detailed coverage of a broad range of issues in a manner accessible to the general public. Sustaining Life was named best biology book for 2008 by the Library Journal along with E. O. Wilson's and Bert Hölldobler's Superorganism. Chivian was also involved in setting up the First International Conference on Health and Biodiversity (COHAB 2005) which he opened in Galway, Ireland in 2005. This was the first global meeting of its kind to bring UN agencies, scientists, NGOs, policy makers, economists, indigenous and local community representatives and the private sector together to explore the wide-ranging implications of biodiversity loss for human health and well-being. The conference, and the global programme for Co-operation on Health and Biodiversity which was established as a result, were largely based on Chivian's work and the concepts behind the Sustaining Life project. In recent years, Chivian has worked to explore common ground between scientific and religious perspectives on environmental issues. Together with the Rev. Richard Cizik, then Vice President for Governmental Affairs of the National Association of Evangelicals, Chivian was named by Time magazine in 2008 as one of the 100 most influential people in the world, for their work in organizing scientists and evangelicals to join together in efforts to protect the global environment. Chivian runs Pairidaeza Farm, an almost fully organic orchard in central Massachusetts growing heirloom apples, peaches, pears, Asian pears, apricots, plums, cherries and grapes. Chivian's father-in-law was