Eva Pell is the author of a new series called ResQ/Saving Species One Animal at a Time. The first book in the series ResQ and the Baby Orangutan was launched  September 14, 2019. The second book, ResQ Takes on the Takhi came out in June 2020. She is looking forward to the publication of book three in the series, ResQ in Panamá: Fighting for Frogs due out in 2021.

 

Eva’s path to becoming an author of children’s books has been a journey of many miles. Born and raised in New York City, Eva was the daughter of recent immigrants who fled Nazi Germany. Her parents impressed upon her the need for education, so she could look forward to going to work each day with enthusiasm and joy. The first problem she had to solve was, what is that something? She loved science from the beginning. The small lima bean farm she grew on her apartment window-sill overlooking the alley, began a lifetime love affair with the botanical world. But city life was not for her. She used to stand on the overpass of the Cross Bronx Expressway watching the cars leaving the city. One day, she promised herself, she too would say goodbye to this world of concrete. 

 

Eva went to the City College of New York where she received a B.S. in Biology. At Rutgers University she earned a Ph.D. in Plant Biology studying the effects of air pollution on vegetation. Her real dream to leave the city came when Eva went to work at Penn State University where she was a Professor of Plant Pathology. Together with her students, they developed a better understanding of how air pollutants impaired plant health and productivity. After 26 years teaching and doing research, Eva changed career paths. She became the Senior Vice President for Research and Dean of the Graduate School at Penn State, and within those roles she developed a broader awareness for the range of scientific endeavor. It was in that period that Eva came to learn about the field of material science and how it might transform life in the future.

After almost 37 years at Penn State it was time to spread her wings a little further. Armed with scientific and administrative experiences, Eva became Under Secretary for Science at the Smithsonian Institution where she oversaw operations of the National Museum of Natural History; the National Air and Space Museum; the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in Cambridge, Mass.; the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center in Edgewater, Md.; the Smithsonian’s Museum Conservation Institute in Suitland, Md.; the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama; and the National Zoo and its Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute in Front Royal, Va.. 

During her time at the Smithsonian, Eva came, literally and figuratively, face to face with endangered species and their plight. The efforts of scientists to save these species, became the inspiration and motivation for Eva’s most recent chapter.

As a child, Eva was the one creating the stories she and her friends would act-out. Now, armed with a lifetime of experience, she is writing a fictional adventure series called ResQ, about rescuing endangered species. The first book in the series, ResQand the Baby Orangutan, published by Tumblehome, Inc., was launched on September 14, 2019, at the National Zoo. She hopes the children who read these books will believe that they can make a difference in the world and our environment.

Eva lives in State College, PA with her husband Ira. They have two children and three grandchildren who are a source of continual inspiration.

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