Chautauqua Lecture and Keynote Speaker (2019)
"The New Ecology: Rethinking a Science for the Anthropocene"
Oswald Schmitz
Thursday, September 12, 2010
7:30 p.m. - 9:00 p.m., O'Donnell Hall, Whitlock Building
Bruce MacLaren Distinguished Lecture / Celebration of Science Week Keynote Address
For more information visit Chautauqua.eku.edu
Biography
Os Schmitz is the Oastler Professor of Population and Community Ecology, in the Yale University School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. His research aims to make sense of nature’s complexity. Complexity comes from the interdependencies among the variety of carnivore, herbivore, decomposer and plant species within together within ecosystems. This complexity can make understanding of ecological functioning daunting. But his research resolves rules that explain how these interdependencies vary in time and space, and what they mean for ecosystem functions like nutrient cycling, carbon storage, and resiliency to global environmental change. His book, The New Ecology: Rethinking a Science for the Anthropocene, written for a broad readership, conveys these exciting new discoveries and developments in ecological science and how they can help society achive sustainable livelihoods in the new age in which humans dominate the Earth.
Os holds a Ph.D. in Resource Ecology from the University of Michigan School of Natural Resources and the Environment, and a Masters of Science and Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Guelph in Canada. He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the Ecological Society of America. He has served on the scientific advisory board of the American Forest Foundation’s Center for Conservation Solutions and US Environmental Protection Agency’s Scientific Advisory Board ad hoc panel reviewing the EPA Report on the Environment. He has also served as science advisor to the Open Space Institute’s efforts to develop strategy for building a climate resilient landscape in the northeastern USA. He currently serves on the science advisory council of the Ocean Conservancy.
Sponsored by the College of Science, the Office of Graduate Education and Research and the Honors Program