Andrew Smith and Team of Investigators Win NSF grant

The National Science Foundation has awarded Professor Andrew T. Smith, a Center for Biology and Society faculty member, over $1,000,000 to study Tibetan grassland and the complex interactions in determining grassland status. Hear an interview with Andrew about Pikas on the BBC Radio Saving Species episode 20

The Pika is a small mammal that lives in the high altitude grasslands in mountain ranges from Japan, through central Asia and North America. Andrew Smith and his team of field biologists from Arizona State University has studied the Pika for many years on the Tibetan Plateau. It's in Tibet, he claims, they are wrongly blamed for the degrading of the grasslands by the Chinese. We have been to see Andrew Smith and have a reply from the Chinese Academy of Science.