Abigail Kingsley Alling co-founded the non-profit organization, Biosphere Foundation (BF), in 1991 while living inside Biosphere 2 and continues today as its President and Chief Executive Officer.
Biosphere Foundation’s primary goal is to inspire intelligent stewardship of our biosphere. At present, BF’s projects are based onboard its research vessel, Mir,where its team has initiated coral reef, sea turtle and marine mammal conservation programs in Asia.
At Biosphere 2 (1986-1994), Abigail managed its research program and created & operated the largest artificial ecological marine system – a 1,000,000-gallon mangrove marsh and coral reef.
She has sailed the world’s oceans including a voyage to the Antarctic Peninsula to study humpback whale population genetics in collaboration with the National Cancer Research Institute.
In the early eighties she lived in Sri Lanka for five years to set up a marine mammal sanctuary with WWF, UNEP and the National Aquatic Resource Agency and in 1987, she was the marine biologist who supervised the historic first successful release of two captive bottlenose dolphins back to the wild.
Abigail is a Fellow of the Academy of Arts & Sciences, New York Academy of Sciences, Linnaean Society and Explorers Club. She graduated from Middlebury College (Biology) with Honors and received a Masters in Environmental Sciences with Honors from Yale