Being from the Southeastern portion of the United States, I have always identified myself as a Southerner.  But now after my Fulbright experience in Puerto Williams, the world’s southernmost town, I have truly earned the title.  Southern Chile includes many mythical place names, such as Cape Horn, Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego.  It also houses one of the world’s largest and most pristine intact wilderness areas. 
 
This relatively unknown and mythical part of Chile was where I was able to develop my Ph.D. dissertation in ecology with a Fulbright Fellowship and the local support of the University of Magallanes and the Omora Foundation.  My research dealt directly with the ecosystem effects of the North American beaver (Castor canadensis) on the ecosystems of the Cape Horn area.  The beaver is an exotic species in Chile, introduced in the 1940s in the hopes of creating a fur industry.  While the fur industry failed, the beaver succeeded, and is now an economic and ecological plague over much of the region.  My dissertation studied its impacts in this non-native ecosystem and explored why as an exotic species it could become so invasive and detrimental. 
 
Science for the sake of science, in my opinion, is no science at all.  Due to my local partners, I was fortunately able to integrate my project with relevant social initiatives, such as education programs and public policy development.  For example, working in Puerto Williams’ only school, we taught a weekly environmental education class.  The final product was to produce a series of posters and a teacher’s manual that described the “micro-biodiversity of Cape Horn” (see www.omora.org). 
 
It is often lamented that there are very few large, charismatic species in southern Chile, but in reality it is truly a jungle.  Approximately 500 moss, 400 liverwort and 500 lichen species inhabit the Cape Horn area, compared to less than 10 tree species.  This figure is equivalent to 7% of the world’s non-vascular plant diversity, making southern Chile a world biodiversity hotspot for these tiny plants.  A challenge for scientists is to make it possible for students and the general public to understand and thereby be able to appreciate these “miniature forests.”
 
In policy development I was able to collaborate with researchers and authorities from diverse institutions and public services to integrate science into decision-making in several realms.  First, a regional plan for the control of exotic species has allowed my work to pass from theory to application in order to remedy the disaster of introduced species, including the beaver.  Additionally, the initiative to declare the Cape Horn Biosphere Reserve has provided me a forum to interact with local, regional, national and international authorities and truly experience the process of integrating science and policy in order to plan for ecotourism and sustainable development in the area, issues which I plan to continue as a career in international environmental policy after the completion of my Ph.D.