The Institute’s work was recently highlighted by the Daily News.
John Waldman is standing on a dirt path, surrounded on all sides by 4-foot-tall sea grass, staring out across Jamaica Bay.
Seagulls are flying overhead. Ducks are gliding across the water.
A conservation biologist, Waldman is in his element. He’s spent the better part of three decades in the waterways surrounding New York.
Waldman is talking about Jamaica Bay’s potential in helping to understand concepts as complex as climate change when he spots a group of elementary school students walking down the path.
He cracks a wide smile.
“The water changes everything for kids,” says Waldman, 59, a Queens College biology professor.
“That connection with nature can change your life. This bay is so close to the city but so many kids never see it. It’s something that everyone should experience.”
Waldman’s passion for a waterway that serves as a conduit for much of the city’s sewage paved the way for the creation of a multimillion-dollar research center.
