Gene E. Likens is an ecologist best known for discovering acid rain in North America, for co-founding the internationally renowned Hubbard Brook Ecosystem Study and for founding the Institute of Ecosystem Studies in Milbrook, New York state. He holds faculty positions at Yale, Cornell and Rutgers Universities, State University of New York at Albany, and University of Connecticut and was awarded the 2001 National Medal of Science. He is the author, co-author or editor of 17 books and nearly 500 scientific papers and articles.