Beacon Institute Fellow
Clarkson University

Senior Fellow in Environmental Affairs
Pace University Academy
for Applied Environmental Studies

For 37 years, John Cronin has dedicated his career to environment and innovation. For his accomplishments, Time magazine named him a “Hero for the Planet” and People magazine described him as “equal parts detective, scientist and public advocate.”

Cronin has worked as an advocate, legislative and congressional aide, commercial fisherman, professor, author and filmmaker. He is known internationally for his Hudson River work, for which the Wall Street Journal called him "a unique presence on America's major waterways." He served as Hudson Riverkeeper from 1983-2000, a position that has inspired a legacy of 200 Waterkeeper programs that fight pollution on six continents.

As Beacon Institute's Founding Director and Chief Executive Officer, Cronin adopted technological innovation as the not-for-profit research center's central mission. Its River and Estuary Observatory Network (REON), created in collaboration with Clarkson University and IBM, is a network of sensors and robotics that provide real-time data to researchers, policy makers and educators, that has attracted international interest in the Institute's technological innovations.

Cronin is the Senior Fellow in Environmental Affairs at the Pace Academy for Applied Environmental Studies at Pace University, where he is helping to create an interdisciplinary program of undergraduate and graduate studies in environmental innovation and policy.

Under Beacon Institute's alliance with Clarkson University, Cronin steps out of his five-year appointment as Beacon Institute director and CEO to be named the first Beacon Institute Fellow at Clarkson University. He will head the Policy and Information Innovation Project, a collaboration of Pace University, Clarkson and Beacon Institute,  that will use technological innovation to improve and reform water policy, and train the next generation of environmental leaders.

Cronin co-authoredThe Riverkeepers, with Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., published by Scribner with an introduction by former Vice President Al Gore. He has written numerous articles, including for the Op Ed page of The New York TImes. He wrote and co-produced the filmThe Last Rivermen, named an outstanding documentary by the Motion Picture Academy Foundation. His many honors includeTime magazine Hero for the Planet, an honorary Juris Doctor from Pace University School of Law, the William E. Ricker Award from the American Fisheries Society, the Thomas Berry Environmental Award, and a national Jefferson Award, known as the "Nobel Prize for public service.

Cronin has been the subject of three books and extensive major media print and broadcast news stories, documentaries and profiles. The Knight-Ridder newspapers praised John Cronin as a "hero in one of the great success stories of the modern environmental movement."