Wes Jackson is a geneticist, author, and visionary leader of the sustainability movement. He was first to chair the Environmental Studies department at California State University- Sacramento, one of the first such programs in the U.S. He left that position to return to his home state of Kansas where he and his then wife, Dana, co-founded The Land Institute. There he originated the concept of transforming agriculture to mimic the prairie with the development of perennial grains grown in polyculture. Wes is a recipient if the Pew Conservation Scholars award 1990, the MacArthur fellowship (1992), and the Right Livelihood Award (Stockholm), known as the “Alternative Nobel Prize” (2000). He continues to work on behalf of TLI Ecosphere Studies program, which explores the broader social, political, and economic changes necessary to allow both agriculture and culture to flourish.