H
e has made Conan O’Brien recoil and take deep relaxation breaths, made a bat maven out of Martha Stewart and scared Jennifer Love Hewit from her chair. Eastern Michigan graduate Rob Mies (BS92), who
entered EMU with the goal of becoming an environmental lawyer, has blossomed into a media star and large-crowd pleaser. He draws on his charm, his good looks and the resonant and surprising message that bats—one of the world’s most misunderstood creatures—are good for the environment and don’t harm people. Any given month might see Mies doing presentations in
Los Angeles or Denver or Holland, Mich. He speaks twice a year in New York City and appears at Chicago’s Shedd Aquarium, and his travels take him to remote locations like the Nicaraguan rainforest where he helps capture and document animals. “My goal is to be inspiring,” Mies says. “What I want is to
get people to go home and do something.” Mies’s mantra: Bats are unique. They are the only mammals
that can fly. They are important to our ecology and economy. They eat insects. They spread seeds. They pollinate. But there are concerns that demand immediate action. Bat
populations are dwindling due to environmental pressures, burgeoning wind power, and a new and deadly disease, white nose syndrome. “There are lots of things we need to do,” Mies says of his
effort to preserve bats and help them flourish. “That includes population monitoring. Where do they migrate? How, and when? There are lots of unanswered questions.” “When Rob comes into the room, you can sense it,”
NG IT
says Bill Scullon, a wildlife biologist with the Michigan Department of Natural Resources and someone who’s often worked with Mies. “People tune in real quickly. You can see that energy, and the crowd feeds off it. It’s nice to see people so positive about conservation.” Professor Allen Kurta, the nationally-known EMU bat
by Geoff Larcom
expert who played a role in Mies’ own evolution, calls Mies highly personable, adding, “That’s a very important thing
PHOTO: Back in the fall of 2005, Rob chatted with Conan O’Brien as he showed off a straw-colored fruit bat.
Photo courtesy of NBC, Late Night with Conan O’Brien
Eastern | SUMMER 2013 25
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