Indianapolis Prize Honorary Co-Chairs 2012

Jane Alexander
Internationally known and multiple award winning actress and environmentalist Jane Alexander has been involved with the Indianapolis Prize since the first Prize Gala in 2006, which she emceed.  She was joined in that task at the 2008 Prize Gala by her good friend, actor and fellow environmentalist Sam Waterston.  Alexander, known for her outstanding performances on stage, film and television, is a passionate supporter of the arts (she formerly served as chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts) and of nature (she formerly served as Commissioner of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation for the State of New York).  She is dedicated to the preservation of wildlife and her support of the Indianapolis Prize has been significant and generous.

Christel DeHaan
Christel DeHaan is both a global business leader and an eminent philanthropist who has contributed to a wide range of charitable causes. DeHaan is President and CEO of CD Enterprises and pioneered the provision of international exchange and travel services in over 70 countries.  She has received numerous honors and awards for her business leadership. Ms. DeHaan has also been recognized as one of America’s top 50 business owners, as well as an outstanding citizen of the State of Indiana. She has contributed to philanthropic causes including the Indiana Symphony Society, the American Pianists Association, the Midwest Entrepreneurial Education Centre and the National Adoption Centre. At present, she dedicates considerable time and enthusiasm to the Christel DeHaan Family Foundation, which includes Christel House, Inc., a charity which she established to help orphaned and abandoned children in developing countries.

Harrison Ford
Well known actor and conservationist activist Harrison Ford has served on the board of Conservation International for more than 10 years. Conservation International is a nonprofit organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., that seeks to protect Earth's biodiversity "hotspots," high-biodiversity wilderness areas, as well as important marine regions around the globe. The group is also known for its partnerships with local non-governmental organizations and indigenous peoples.  Ford has received numerous environmental awards, including the 2002 Global Environmental Citizen Award from Harvard Medical School.  Among his many memorable film roles are as Han Solo in Star Wars, the Indiana Jones trilogy, Witness, The Fugitive, Air Force One and Regarding Henry.

Gilbert Grosvenor
The legendary Gilbert Grosvenor is chairman of the National Geographic Society's Education Foundation and is a member of the Society's board of trustees. Grosvenor was president of National Geographic from 1980 to 1996, the fifth generation of his family to have served in that position. In 1975, Grosvenor created National Geographic World (now National Geographic Kids), a monthly magazine for children. In 1985 he launched an effort to improve geography education in the nation's classrooms. The Society's Geography Education Outreach division and its local partners have invested more than $110 million in improving geography in America's K-12 schools. In June 2004 Grosvenor received the Presidential Medal of Freedom.  Photo:  National Geographic Society

Marvin Hamlisch
The renowned American composer appeared at the Indianapolis Prize Gala in 2010 where he performed a song he has written specially for the ceremony.  He is one of only two people to be awarded Emmys, Grammys, Oscars and Tonys as well as a Pulitzer Prize. He is the composer of more than 40 motion picture scores including his score and song for The Way We Were and his adaptation of Scott Joplin’s music for The Sting. Additional productions for which Hamlisch has provided original compositions and musical adaptations for Sophie’s Choice, Ordinary People, The Swimmer, Three Men and a Baby, Ice Castles, Take the Money and Run, Bananas and Save the Tiger.  Photo:  indy.com

Carl Hiaasen
Born and raised in Plantation, Florida (near Fort Lauderdale), Carl was graduated from the University of Florida with a degree in journalism. After two years as a reporter for Cocoa Today out of Cocoa, Florida, he joined the Miami Herald in 1976, where he still works. From 1979 he turned to investigative journalism, concentrating on construction and property development - exposing schemes to destroy Florida's natural beauty. Eventually, in the 1980s, he embarked on a career as a novelist. He co-wrote three thrillers with fellow-journalist Bill Montalbano - Powder Burn (1981), Trap Line (1981), and A Death in China (1986). After Montalbano became a foreign correspondent, Hiaasen wrote his first book, Tourist Season (1986) - introducing many of his distinctive styles and themes. Hiaasen's fiction mirrors his concerns as a journalist and Floridian. His novels have been classified as "environmental thrillers" and are usually found on the crime shelves in bookshops, although they can just as well be read as mainstream satires of contemporary life. Photo copyright David Middleton.

Elinor Ostrom

Ostrom is Distinguished Professor and Arthur F. Bentley Professor of Political Science in the College of Arts and Sciences at IU Bloomington. She is also a professor in the School of Public and Environmental Affairs at IU Bloomington and senior research director of the Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis at Indiana University, which she and Vincent Ostrom founded in 1973-74. Ostrom is considered one of the leading scholars in the study of common pool resources (CPR) and her work emphasized how humans interact with ecosystems to maintain long-term sustainable resource yields. In 2009, Ostrom received the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for her analysis of economic governance. She is first woman to win the prize in this category,
Photo:  Indiana University

Roger W. Sant
Roger Sant is Co-founder and Chairman Emeritus of The AES Corporation, a global power company operating in 27 countries. Prior to starting AES in 1981, he was Assistant Administrator for Energy Conservation and the Environment at the Federal Energy Administration. He was also the Director of the Energy Productivity Center, an energy research organization affiliated with the Mellon Institute at Carnegie-Mellon University. Mr. Sant is Chairman of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution and Chairs the Boards of Trustees of The Summit Foundation, The Summit Fund of Washington and the National Museum of Natural History. He is Treasurer of the World Wildlife Fund-U.S. (which he chaired from 1994 to 2000). He chaired the WWF National Council from September 2001 to September 2002. Mr. Sant received a B.S. from Brigham Young University and an M.B.A. with Distinction from the Harvard Graduate School of Business.

E.O. Wilson
One of the world's most distinguished scientists, biologist E.O. Wilson is a professor and honorary curator in entomology at Harvard. In 1975, he published Sociobiology: The New Synthesis, a work that described social behavior, from ants to humans. He received his Ph.D. from Harvard University, where he taught from 1956. Recognized as the world's leading authority on ants, he discovered their use of pheromone for communication. His The Insect Societies (1971) was the definitive treatment of the subject. In On Human Nature (1978, Pulitzer Prize) he explored sociobiology's implications in regard to human aggression, sexuality, and ethics. With Bert Hölldobler he wrote the major study The Ants (1990, Pulitzer Prize). In The Diversity of Life (1992) he examined how the world's species became diverse and the massive extinctions caused by 20th-century human activities. In Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge (1998) he proposed that all of existence can be organized and understood in accordance with a few fundamental natural laws.
Photo:  Harvard University