In Memoriam: Dr. Alan Lucier
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Dr. Alan Lucier, NCASI Senior Vice President, has recently passed away. Al was a dedicated and insightful leader of NCASI for more than thirty years, having joined NCASI in 1983 as a Research Program Manager with responsibility for oversight of NCASI’s nascent forestry program. He was promoted to Director, Forest Environment and Sustainability Program in 1990, and named Senior Vice President in 1994.
Dr. Lucier achieved an international reputation as a thoughtful and effective leader and spokesperson on numerous forest management and sustainability topics, most notably the role of forest carbon in greenhouse gas accounting. Among other leadership roles, he was co-founder and first board chairman of the Institute of Forest Biotechnology, and he continued to serve on the Board of that organization. Al was also a member of the strategic planning committee for the 2014 World Congress of the International Union of Forestry Research Organizations, and member of the Steering Committee for the Northern Institute of Applied Carbon Science at Michigan Technological University.He also served as Co-Chair of the Sustainable Forestry Task Group of the Agenda 2020 Technology Alliance, was a member of the National NCASI, the Environmental Resource for the Forest Products, the Environmental Resource for the Forest Products Industry, the Commission on Science for Sustainable Forestry, and served as Chairman of the Forest Working Group of the Heinz , and the Center’s State of the Nation’s Ecosystem Program.
Dr. Lucier was an able and effective senior administrator for NCASI while serving as Senior Vice President. He was a trusted advisor and counselor to the President, served effectively as a spokesman for the organization, and implemented significant improvements in NCASI’s research program planning process. Al led and administered NCASI’s forest environment and sustainability program throughout his long tenure with NCASI. He designed and skillfully executed research programs on Sustainable Forestry, Climate Change, Biomass Energy, and Forest Wetlands, and the results of this research shaped policy and regulatory decision-making for three decades. Al was awarded a Ph.D. in Forestry by North Carolina State University in 1982. He also held a Master’s Degree in Tree Physiology and Ecology from the University of Missouri-Columbia and a B.S. degree in Biology, cum laude, from Tufts University.
Al is survived by his wife, Donna, and their four children, Gregory, Julia, Jennifer, and Peter.
