March 11 - David Macdonald
 Director, Wildlife Conservation Research Unit
Oxford University
About the Speaker | Abstract About David Macdonald: David Macdonald is the Director of the Wildlife Conservation Research Unit (WildCRU) at Oxford University, which he founded in 1986. He is Oxford's first Professor of Wildlife Conservation, holding a Senior Research Fellowship at Lady Margaret Hall. David Macdonald's concept was, and remains, to undertake original research on aspects of fundamental biology relevant to solving practical problems of wildlife conservation and environmental management, and thus to underpin policy formation and public debate of the many issues that surround the conservation of wildlife and its habitats. From his early work on red foxes he retains a specialization in carnivores, with an increasing emphasis on felids. He has published over 300 papers in refereed international journals, and written or edited more than a dozen books, of which the most recent is Key Topics in Conservation Biology. He is committed to outreach to a wide public and has twice won the Natural World Natural History Author of the Year Award (with Running with the Fox and with European Mammals) and he is also known for his award winning TV documentaries, such as The Night of the Fox and Meerkats United. Amongst other things he is currently a Visiting Professor at Imperial College, chair of Darwin Advisory Committee, Chair of Natural England’s Science Advisory Committee and board member, a Trustee of Earthwatch Europe and WWF-UK, and council member of the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust. He won the Dawkins Prize for Conservation and Animal Welfare in 2005, he was awarded the American Society of Mammalogists' Merriam Prize for research in mammalogy in 2006, and in 2007 The Mammal Society of Great Britain's equivalent medal. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in March 2008. Abstract: Human interactions with mammals, especially large carnivores, often involve conflict. Whether it is a fox killing your chickens, or a lion killing your cow, this conflict raises biologically and ethically difficult issues for conservation. Drawing on his work on lions in Zimbabwe, jaguars in Brazil and tigers in Bhutan, amongst others, David Macdonald – founding Director of Oxford University’s Wildlife Conservation Research Unit – explores the complexities of human-wildlife conflict. He also draws parallels between bushmeat harvests in West Africa and conservation in the English landscape, in a wide-ranging talk that spans Ethiopian wolves to moths. May 13 - Rodolfo Dirzo
 Professor, Biology Department
Stanford University
About the Speaker About Rodolfo Dirzo: Rodolfo Dirzo's work centers on the study of the ecological and evolutionary relationships between plants and animals. He is interested in discovering how such relationships determine the evolution of plant adaptations to attract some kinds of animals, such as pollinators and seed dispersal agents and to deter other kinds of animals, such as defoliators or seed predators. In addition, he is interested in determining how the relationships between plants and animals are disrupted by human impact, particularly deforestation and fragmentation. His recent work includes a documentation of the global magnitude of animal extinction, defaunation, and how this affects the global biodiversity and the functioning of ecosystems. Most of his work is carried in tropical ecosystems of Latin America. Rodolfo Dirzo studied Biology at the University of Morelos, México. He completed his Masters (M.Sc.) and Doctorate (Ph.D) in Ecology at the University of Wales, Great Britain. Currently Dr. Dirzo is a Professor at Stanford University in the Biology Department. Previously he has been a Professor at UNAM, where he was also Director of the Los Tuxtlas Research Station. He has been awarded the Presidential Award for Merits in Ecology, from the Office of the President of Mexico. September 9 - Dr. Margaret Palmer
 Professor and Director
Chesapeake Biological Laboratory of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science
About the Speaker About Dr. Margaret Palmer: Dr. Margaret Palmer, Professor and Director of the Chesapeake Biological Laboratory of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science is an expert on watershed science and restoration ecology having worked on streams, rivers, and estuaries for 27 years and leading scientific projects at national and international levels. She has more than 150 scientific publications, serves as an editor for the journal Restoration Ecology and co-authored the book The Foundations of Restoration Ecology. Dr. Palmer has been honored as a AAAS Fellow, an Aldo Leopold Leadership Fellow, a Lilly Fellow, a Distinguished Scholar Teacher, and with an Ecological Society of America Distinguished Service Award. November 18 - Elinor Ostrom
 Arthur F. Bentley Professor of Political Science and Senior Research Director of the Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis
Indiana University
About the Speaker About Elinor Ostrom: Elinor Ostrom is Arthur F. Bentley Professor of Political Science and Senior Research Director of the Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis, Indiana University, Bloomington; and Founding Director, Center for the Study of Institutional Diversity, Arizona State University. She is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National Academy of Sciences, and the American Philosophical Society, and a recipient of the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 2009, Reimar Lüst Award for International Scholarly and Cultural Exchange, the Elazar Distinguished Federalism Scholar Award, the Frank E. Seidman Distinguished Award in Political Economy, the Johan Skytte Prize in Political Science, the Atlas Economic Research Foundation's Lifetime Achievement Award, and the John J. Carty Award for the Advancement of Science. Her books include Governing the Commons (1990); Rules, Games, and Common-Pool Resources (1994, with Roy Gardner and James Walker); Local Commons and Global Interdependence: Heterogeneity and Cooperation in Two Domains (1995, with Robert Keohane); Trust and Reciprocity: Interdisciplinary Lessons from Experimental Research (2003, with James Walker); The Commons in the New Millennium: Challenges and Adaptations (2003, with Nives Dolšak); The Samaritan's Dilemma: The Political Economy of Development Aid (2005, with Clark Gibson, Krister Andersson, and Sujai Shivakumar); Understanding Institutional Diversity (2005); Understanding Knowledge as a Commons: From Theory to Practice (2007, with Charlotte Hess); and Working Together: Collective Action, the Commons, and Multiple Methods in Practice (forthcoming 2010, with Amy Poteete and Marco Janssen). |
January 14 - Greg Asner
 Department of Global Ecology
Carnegie Institution for Science
Giving Science Away: Turning Tragedy to Hope in Humid Tropical Forest Conservation
About the Speaker | View Abstract About Greg Asner: Greg Asner is a faculty member of the Department of Global Ecology, Carnegie Institution for Science. He also holds a faculty position in the Department of Environmental Earth Systems Science at Stanford University. His research aims to understand connections between ecosystems, resource use and climate change. Dr. Asner's work focuses on deforestation and forest degradation throughout the humid tropics, fire and herbivore interactions in African savannas, invasive species and biodiversity change in tropical forests, and the impacts of livestock and biofuels production on the global carbon cycle. He leads the CLASlite, Spectranomics, and Carnegie Airborne Observatory programs that focus on tropical forest carbon and biodiversity monitoring for conservation and policy development. Dr. Asner was a White House PECASE award winner in 2000 and was named in America's Brilliant 10 by Popular Science magazine in 2007. Abstract: Tropical forests harbor the richest biodiversity in the terrestrial world, but humans clear, log, hunt, burn, mine, and otherwise alter enormous tracks of tropical forest each year. This tragic pace of forest loss contributes to other global changes such as increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide levels, climate change and biological invasions. One important solution to the tropical biodiversity crisis is forest protection, but a United Nations program called REDD – Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation – could vastly boost tropical forest conservation, curb greenhouse gas emissions and provide financial support to forest landowners. The success of this international program and a new “carbon economy” rests on a foundation of science that provides mapping and monitoring of forest change over time. New science and technology programs are meeting this challenge with parallel developments in carbon and biodiversity mapping as well as training and capacity building for recipient organizations in tropical forest nations. The pace is rapid but the stakes are high, and the hope of saving tropical forests and mitigating climate change has never been so strong.
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