Payson R. Stevens (born March 29, 1945) is an artist, writer, environmentalist, filmmaker, and science communicator from the United States. Stevens is regarded as a pioneer of science communication in the fields of earth systems science (ESS) and climate change in the U.S. He is also noted as an early digital and electronic visual artist, a painter, and a poet. In addition, he is known for his environmental and humanitarian work in California, US, and Himachal Pradesh, India.
Personal life and education
Payson R. Stevens was born to Dr. Naomi Miller Coval-Apel, a noted New York dentist, and Eric Stevens.[1][2]
Stevens has a background in molecular biology, biological oceanography, and graphic design. He studied molecular biology at the City University of New York. He also studied at the Arts Students League and the School of Visual Arts in New York City.[3] Later, Stevens completed some graduate work at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, under the guidance of Roger Revelle.[4]
Stevens is married to the Indian writer Kamla K. Kapur. They live in Del Mar, San Diego County, California.[5][6]
Science communication
Stevens was a contributing consultant to the college textbooks Biology Today and Geology Today, published by CRM in 1972 and 1973 respectively.[3][7] Stevens was the writer for the documentary 'Antarctica: Desert of Ice, Sea of Life', which was broadcast by KPBS on November 19, 1979.[8][9] This documentary won the CINE Golden Eagle Award and the 1980 Silver Award at the U.S. Industrial Film Festival.[10]
In 1979, Stevens founded the company InterNetwork Inc. (INI) 'to provide to provide communication services to organizations wanting to convey scientific information to broader, lay audiences using a variety of media'.[11] In 1985, the Earth Science Systems Committee of NASA reached out to Stevens for help in engaging non-technical audiences, such as bureaucrats, politicians, and the general public, with the then nascent discipline of ESS. Stevens and his company INI prepared ESS material and a strategy to promote them. Some of the ESS topics Stevens/INI helped design and illustrate materials for included an introduction to ESS,[12] climate change,[13] space missions for oceanographic data,[14] El Nino,[15] and the ozone layer.[16] The techniques used in these materials and promotional strategy were more often associated with corporate marketing.[17] According to the historian of science Jenifer Barton, 'Payson Stevens's work helped transform ESS's products and various communication strategies into a science brand'.[18] Similar arguments about the significance of Stevens's work for ESS also appear in an interview of the earth scientist Berrien Moore III (2011), and in the Encyclopedia of Ocean Sciences (2008).[19][20]
In 1989, Stevens presented the work of INI at Robert Redford's 'Sundance Symposium on Global Climate Change'.[21] In 1990, he delivered a TED talk on global warming.[22][23]
In 1993, Stevens's company INI received the John Wesley Powell Award from the United States Geological Survey.[24]
In 1994, INI went on to receive the Presidential Award for Design Excellence from President Bill Clinton.[25][26]
Later in the 1990s, InterNetwork Inc. evolved into a new company, called InterNetwork Media Inc.[25][3]
Nature conservation
In the late 1970s, Stevens was involved in the public efforts to get certain tracts, marked for offshore oil drilling in the Outer Continental Shelf near San Diego, California, deleted on environmental grounds.[27]
In 2000, the volunteer group 'Friends of GHNP' was founded by Stevens and Sanjeeva Pandey, an Indian Forest Service officer who was then the director of the Great Himalayan National Park (GHNP), located in the north Indian state of Himachal Pradesh.[28] Stevens was a key player in Friends of GHNP, which put together the nomination dossier and spearheaded the application for a UNESCO World Heritage Site status for the Great Himalayan National Park (GHNP) in Himachal Pradesh, India.[29] In June 2014, GHNP became a UNESCO World Heritage Site.[30][31]
Since 2021, Stevens has been involved in the public efforts to protect the bluffs and beach in Del Mar, California, along the Pacific Ocean.[6][32]
Humanitarian work
Stevens was a founding member and board advisor of the non-governmental organization (NGO) 'My Himachal', formed in 2006. This NGO trained rural women as healthcare workers, organized traveling health fairs, and instituted a small education fund, all in a remote part of Himachal Pradesh, India.[33] For this work, Stevens was honored in 2008 by Project Concern International.[3][34]
