Caren Beth Cooper is an American professor and scholar at
North Carolina State University
North Carolina State University (NC State) is a public land-grant research university in Raleigh, North Carolina. Founded in 1887 and part of the University of North Carolina system, it is the largest university in the Carolinas. The universit ...
,
citizen science
Citizen science (CS) (similar to community science, crowd science, crowd-sourced science, civic science, participatory monitoring, or volunteer monitoring) is scientific research conducted with participation from the public (who are sometimes re ...
advocate, and author of two books on citizen science.
Her doctoral dissertation addressed the effects of habitat fragmentation on the Australian passerine. Her scientific publications concentrate primarily on ornithology as well as citizen science contributions to science and diversity, equity, and inclusion in underserved communities.
Biography
Cooper was born in New York and grew up in multiple locations in the South, including
Chapel Hill, North Carolina
Chapel Hill is a town in Orange, Durham and Chatham counties in the U.S. state of North Carolina. Its population was 61,960 in the 2020 census, making Chapel Hill the 17th-largest municipality in the state. Chapel Hill, Durham, and the state ca ...
. There, she developed an interest in animals, particularly birds. She decided against a career in veterinary medicine and instead chose field studies.
In 2007-2008, Cooper served as chair of Kol Haverim, the
Finger Lakes
The Finger Lakes are a group of eleven long, narrow, roughly north–south lakes located south of Lake Ontario in an area called the ''Finger Lakes region'' in New York, in the United States. This region straddles the northern and transitional ...
Community for
Humanistic Judaism
Humanistic Judaism ( ''Yahadut Humanistit'') is a Jewish movement that offers a nontheistic alternative to contemporary branches of Judaism. It defines Judaism as the cultural and historical experience of the Jewish people rather than a religio ...
in
Ithaca, New York
Ithaca is a city in the Finger Lakes region of New York, United States. Situated on the southern shore of Cayuga Lake, Ithaca is the seat of Tompkins County and the largest community in the Ithaca metropolitan statistical area. It is named a ...
.
Education
Cooper received a Bachelor of Science degree in zoology in 1988; a Master's in zoology and physiology from the
University of Wyoming
The University of Wyoming (UW) is a public land-grant research university in Laramie, Wyoming. It was founded in March 1886, four years before the territory was admitted as the 44th state, and opened in September 1887. The University of Wyoming ...
in 1993, and a PhD from
Virginia Tech
Virginia Tech (formally the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University and informally VT, or VPI) is a Public university, public Land-grant college, land-grant research university with its main campus in Blacksburg, Virginia. It also ...
in 2000. She also spent 13 years conducting research and advancing citizen science at the
Cornell Lab of Ornithology
The Cornell Lab of Ornithology is a member-supported unit of Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, which studies birds and other wildlife. It is housed in the Imogene Powers Johnson Center for Birds and Biodiversity in Sapsucker Woods Sanctuar ...
.
Career
Academic career
Since January 2019, Cooper has worked at North Carolina State University, where she is an Associate Professor in Forestry and Environmental Resources.
She is a University Faculty Scholar, and is a member of the Chancellor's Faculty Excellence Cluster for Leadership in Public Science. Much of her work is dedicated to developing public science programs that focus volunteers on generating "large-scale data to study and visualize the interactions between social and ecological systems."
She emphasizes equity, diversity, and inclusion in her efforts to educate the public about citizen science. Cooper coauthored a paper in the journal
Science
Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe.
Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence for ...
that explored these themes in more detail. The paper subsequently led to National Science Foundation funding of A Conference on Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion in Citizen Science, an ongoing program to be conducted between September 15, 2021 and August 31, 2022.
During her time at NC State, Cooper has become faculty advisor to the university's first citizen science club. She also helped design the NestWatch, Celebrate Urban Birds, and YardMap citizen science projects for the
Cornell Lab of Ornithology
The Cornell Lab of Ornithology is a member-supported unit of Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, which studies birds and other wildlife. It is housed in the Imogene Powers Johnson Center for Birds and Biodiversity in Sapsucker Woods Sanctuar ...
. She contributed to and helps lead a successful $300,000
National Science Foundation
The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent agency of the United States government that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National I ...
grant to build citizen science capacity at underserved communities with the goal of improving public health and well-being.
She served as assistant director of the Biodiversity
Research Lab
Research is " creative and systematic work undertaken to increase the stock of knowledge". It involves the collection, organization and analysis of evidence to increase understanding of a topic, characterized by a particular attentiveness ...
at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences.
In 2011, she became a Senior Fellow for the Environmental Leadership Program (ELP).
Guest lecturing
In 2020, Cooper gave the
British Trust for Ornithology
The British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) is an organisation founded in 1932 for the study of birds in the British Isles. The Prince of Wales has been patron since October 2020.
History
Beginnings
In 1931 Max Nicholson wrote:
In the United State ...
’s
Witherby Memorial Lecture. On March 17, 2018, she gave the Paul F-Brandwein Lecture at the National Science Teachers Association Annual Meeting in Atlanta. She presented a lecture at the
American Association for the Advancement of Science
The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is an American international non-profit organization with the stated goals of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific respons ...
(AAAS) annual meeting in Chicago in 2014, where she discussed how citizen science and contribute to political improvements.
Writings
In 2016, Cooper published the book Citizen Science: How Ordinary People are Changing the Face of Discovery,
which discussed the roles, impact, and potential of citizen science. In 2020, she coauthored The Field Guide to Citizen Science: How You Can Contribute to Scientific Research and Make a Difference
with
Darlene Cavalier
Darlene Cavalier is an American professor of practice at Arizona State University's School for the Future of Innovation in Society. She is the founder of SciStarter (a science portal and research platform), founder of Science Cheerleaders (a non ...
and Catherine Hoffman, which discusses ways that individuals can get involved in citizen science.
From 2012 to 2016, she wrote a guest blog for
Scientific American
''Scientific American'', informally abbreviated ''SciAm'' or sometimes ''SA'', is an American popular science magazine. Many famous scientists, including Albert Einstein and Nikola Tesla, have contributed articles to it. In print since 1845, it i ...
, discussing the need to incorporate citizen inputs into scientific practices, policy, and activism.
Cooper is one of the founding editors-in-chief for online journal
Citizen Science Theory and Practice, a peer-reviewed, scholarly journal sponsored by the
Citizen Science Association
The Citizen Science Association also known as the CSA is a member based professional organization for practitioners and researchers of citizen science. The CSA was founded in 2013 in the United States and was ruled a charitable organization with a ...
that focuses on the practices and outcomes generated by citizen science. She currently serves as the journal's Special Collections Associate Editor. She has also contributed papers to
PLOS One.
She also wrote as a blogger for
Discover Magazine
''Discover'' is an American general audience science magazine launched in October 1980 by Time Inc. It has been owned by Kalmbach Publishing since 2010.
History
Founding
''Discover'' was created primarily through the efforts of ''Time'' mag ...
.
Organisational affiliations
Cooper is co-chair of the
International Science Council
The International Science Council (ISC) is an international non-governmental organization that unites scientific bodies at various levels across the social and natural sciences. The ISC was formed with its inaugural general assembly on 4 July 201 ...
’s Committee on Data (CODATA) task group on citizen science, known as Citizen Science and the Validation, Curation, and Management of Crowdsourced Data (with
WDS).
Other projects
As a principal investigator, Cooper has led multiple projects with citizen science inputs. She heads the CrowdTheTap project, which is an
EPA
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is an independent executive agency of the United States federal government tasked with environmental protection matters. President Richard Nixon proposed the establishment of EPA on July 9, 1970; it be ...
-funded effort to promote access to safe drinking water by helping individuals and groups investigate pipe materials delivering drinking water to homes. Educators and private citizens input and access data through the project's website
bid.or
SciStarter
SciStarter recruits, trains, and equips people for citizen science research projects in need of their help. It was founded by Darlene Cavalier and is a research affiliate of Arizona State University's School for the Future of Innovation in Society. ...
.org. She also serves as the P.I. for Sound Around Town, a citizen science project designed to study noise levels in urban environments and how they affect people. The project supports the
National Park Service
The National Park Service (NPS) is an agency of the United States federal government within the U.S. Department of the Interior that manages all national parks, most national monuments, and other natural, historical, and recreational propertie ...
’s National Sound Map. Additionally, she leads the SparrowSwap project, which collects and studies
house sparrow
The house sparrow (''Passer domesticus'') is a bird of the sparrow family Passeridae, found in most parts of the world. It is a small bird that has a typical length of and a mass of . Females and young birds are coloured pale brown and grey, a ...
eggs; house sparrows are a non-native, invasive species.
Media appearances
Cooper has been interviewed many times on the subject of citizen science. These interviews include
Yale Environment 360
Yale Environment 360 (abbreviated as E360) is an American online magazine focused on environmental journalism. It includes original reporting, analysis, interviews, and multimedia content. Yale Environment 360 is published by the Yale School of t ...
and
Science Friday
''Science Friday'' (known as ''SciFri'' for short) is a weekly call-in talk show that broadcasts each Friday on public radio stations, distributed by WNYC Studios, and carried on over 400 public radio stations. ''SciFri'' is hosted by award-win ...
; the "How on Earth" radio program on
KGNU
KGNU (1390 AM) & KGNU-FM (88.5 FM) are a pair of community radio stations licensed to Denver and Boulder, Colorado respectively. KGNU is owned by Boulder Community Broadcast Association, Inc.
History KFML
1390 AM was first licensed on April 4, ...
radio in
Boulder, Colorado
Boulder is a home rule city that is the county seat and most populous municipality of Boulder County, Colorado, United States. The city population was 108,250 at the 2020 United States census, making it the 12th most populous city in Color ...
; the Association of Science and Technology Centers’ ASTC On Air online program the "Speaking of Science" online radio program; The Science Show with
Robyn Williams
Robyn Williams (born 30 January 1944) is a British/Australian science journalist and broadcaster who has hosted ''The Science Show'' on ABC Radio National (RN) since 1975, and created ''Ockham's Razor'' in 1984.
Early life and education
W ...
presented by the
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) is the national broadcaster of Australia. It is principally funded by direct grants from the Australian Government and is administered by a government-appointed board. The ABC is a publicly-own ...
; the
Sierra Club
The Sierra Club is an environmental organization with chapters in all 50 United States, Washington D.C., and Puerto Rico. The club was founded on May 28, 1892, in San Francisco, California, by Scottish-American preservationist John Muir, who be ...
’s magazine Sierra; and the online educational program Lab Out Loud. In addition, she was profiled by Animal Behavior Associates, Inc.’s online "Chat with CAABS."
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cooper, Caren
North Carolina State University faculty
Scientists from New York (state)
Women ornithologists
American ornithologists
21st-century American women scientists
Virginia Tech alumni
University of Wyoming alumni
21st-century American zoologists
Living people
Year of birth missing (living people)