Scott McVay
Scott McVay is founding executive director of the Robert Sterling Clark and Geraldine R. Dodge Foundations, and the 16th president of the Chautauqua Institution. A graduate of Princeton, he discovered and documented the six-octave song of the Humpback whale and, with Roger Payne, published a cover article in Science. He led two expeditions to the Alaskan Arctic to study, record, and film the Bowhead whale. The first led to a cover article in American Scientist, the second to a prize-winning film documentary by the National Film Board of Canada. McVay is the recipient of numerous awards, including: the Albert Schweitzer medal, the Animal Welfare Institute; Joseph Wood Krutch medal, Humane Society of the United States; and an honorary doctorate from Middlebury. His board service includes: World Wildlife Fund, Smithsonian, Bat Conservation International, an now, Knowles Science Teaching Foundation. McVay has a new collection of poetry, Whales Sing and Other Exuberances.