Karen Oberhauser

Education

She studied biology at Harvard College and received a Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Minnesota.

Career

Oberhauser is a professor in the Fisheries, Wildlife and Conservation Biology department at the University of Minnesota. Oberhauser married Don Alstad in 1985. The couple had two daughters.

Don died in April 2014 at the age of 67.

Oberhauser has been director for the Monarchs in the Classroom Program, president of the Monarch Butterfly Sanctuary Foundation and director of the Monarch Larva Monitoring Project. Besides publications in scholarly journals, she has also been co-editor for two books published by Cornell Press:

The Monarch Butterfly: Biology and Conservation

Monarchs in a Changing World: Biology and Conservation of an Iconic Butterfly

In 2014, Oberhauser pointed to increased use of Monsanto"s Roundup herbicide as a possible factor in the decline of monarch populations in North America.

The use of the product on farmland has been linked to a decline in milkweeds, an important food source for the butterflies.

Achievements

• In 2013, she was named a Champion of Change for Citizen Science by the White House.