Mark Nelson

Dr. Mark Nelson is a founding director of the Institute of Ecotechnics and has worked for several decades in closed ecological system research, ecological engineering, the restoration of damaged ecosystems, desert agriculture and orchardry and wastewater recycling. He is Chairman and CEO of the Institute of Ecotechnics (www.ecotechnics.edu), a U.K. and U.S. non-profit organization, which consults to several demonstration projects working in challenging biomes around the world. Mark was a member of the biospherian crew for the first two-year closure experiment in Biosphere 2. His books include “Pushing our Limits: Insights from Biosphere 2” (University of Arizona Press, 2018) and “The Wastewater Gardener: Preserving the Planet One Flush at a Time” (Synergetic Press, 2014). He has published in Ecological Engineering, Biosciences, Advances in Space Research and Life Sciences in Space Research, where he is an Associate Editor. His New Mexico connection dates to work at Synergia Ranch near Santa Fe, beginning in the late 1960s where he planted an organic orchard he still helps manage (www.synergiaranch.com).