Ken-ichi Ueda, the UC Berkeley School of Information Master of Information Management and Systems alum behind the popular nature application iNaturalist, has been awarded the prestigious Heinz Award for the Environment alongside his co-director Scott Loarie.
iNaturalist, an application that allows users to post pictures of flora and fauna online in hopes that other nature enthusiasts band together to identify the specimen, first began as Ueda’s final project for the MIMS degree program. Ueda graduated in 2008 and began growing iNaturalist with the California Academy of Sciences and the National Geographic Society until 2023, when iNaturalist went independent. The app has been reviewed by massive outlets such as the New York Times, Nature Magazine, Discover Magazine, and National Geographic, and has amassed over 200 million observations.
In the award announcement, iNaturalist was called “the largest citizen science project in the world” and praised for “allowing the collection of biodiversity data to scale like never before.” The collaborative platform has facilitated the identification of dozens of new species each year, contributing to publications on the discovery of new species, range shifts, species rediscovery, species response to climate change, and more.
“By 2030, iNaturalist is poised to ignite a global movement for biodiversity, driving a net positive trend for the planet,” the award announcement claimed.
The Heinz Awards were established in memory of the late U.S. Senator John Heinz to celebrate the extraordinary achievements of individuals in the arts, the economy, and the environment. Recipients receive a monetary award of $250,000 and a Heinz Award medallion. Ueda and Loarie will be honored alongside the other winners in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in October.
“From connecting us to the diversity of the natural world and creating art that transforms our perspective to developing solutions that address poverty and enable economic stability, this year’s recipients exemplify the qualities that my husband, John Heinz, held in highest regard: intellectual curiosity, an informed optimism, a passion for excellence, a willingness to take risks and the joyous belief that individuals have the power and the responsibility to change the world for the better,” said Theresa Heinz, Chairman of the Heinz Family Foundation.
In 2023, Ueda returned to the School of Information as the commencement speaker. In his speaker announcement, he thanked the I School for its role in his life.
“The I School exposed me to fields like law, sociology, and design in ways that gave me some confidence when they intersected with iNat in various ways,” Ueda explained.
“I want people to care about other life on Earth so that they don’t destroy it, so that they feel enough kinship with slugs and birds and tiny weird desert plants with giant flowers that they want to help them thrive and keep them alive forever.”
