Mark Cioc-Ortega

Mark Cioc-Ortega is a professor of European history at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and author of numerous books and articles on the global environment, including The Rhine: An Eco-Biography, 1815-2000 and The Game of Conservation: International Treaties to Protect the World’s Migratory Animals.  He has been active in the American Society for Environmental History for over two decades and served as the editor of the society’s scholarly journal, Environmental History, from 2006 to 2010.

Mark has spent many years in Europe, first as a student at the University of Mainz (Germany) and later as a visiting professor at the University of Innsbruck (Austria).  He has traveled extensively in the Baltic region and has worked with scholars and activists over the years to promote environmental protection of the Baltic Sea and its tributary rivers.  Mark was on the maiden voyage of Lindblad Expeditions-National Geographic’s Baltic expedition on the Polaris back in 1992 and has returned to the Baltic with Lindblad-National Geographic as often as his teaching schedule allows.