Professor Stephen Kellert’s academic career spanned 40 years. His early career focused on exploring the human/wildlife relationship in various contexts from studies examining Montana ranchers’ attitudes and values toward the black-footed ferret to studies of attitudes and values toward whales in Japan, the United States, and Norway. As his work progressed, one theme persisted: no matter the context, consistent categories of human values toward wildlife, and by extension nature, emerged. In collaboration with Harvard Prof. E.O. Wilson, who initially described notions of biophilia—the biological tendency of humans to seek connections with nature—Kellert developed a theoretical explanation for this consistency in nature-focused values. Humans ability to understand, manipulate, appreciate, and connect with nature has influenced our species’ development and is instrumental to our survival. Kellert described this relationship through nine values of nature: Aesthetic, Dominionistic, Humanistic, Moralistic, Naturalistic, Negativistic, Scientific, Symbolic, and Utilitarian. Kellert’s values typology provided the framework from which he, and many subsequent scholars, considered the human/nature relationship in a range of contexts. Kellert, for example, applied his values framework in the New Haven Watershed Study, affectionately called “the Mastadon study,” which examined how human and ecological systems shape one another. He also used it to consider long-term impacts of participation in programs such as NOLS, Outward Bound, and Student Conservation Association. As Kellert’s explorations continued, he became curious about how the built environment might also reflect the human affinity for nature, leading to new work on biophilic design. This design reflects and nurtures people’s nature-related values and promises health, psychological, and developmental benefits. Kellert collaborated with scholars in psychology, art and architecture, planning, education, and other fields to theoretically anchor this work. Concurrently, he pursued empirical aspects of biophilic design at sites such as the Sidwell Friends School in Washington, DC, and the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies’ Kroon Hall, leaving an enduring legacy at his professional home of more than four decades.
