Public Lectures

Michael J. Balick, Vice President for Botanical Science, The New York Botanical Garden For more than four decades, Michael Balick has studied the relationships between plants and people—the field known as ethnobotany—in the Amazon Valley, Central and...

Melanie L. J. Stiassny, Axelrod Research Curator of Fishes, American Museum of Natural History Some of the most spectacular cataracts, falls, and gorges on Earth are found in the lower Congo River, in the heart of central Africa, near the twin Congolese...

The Honorable Jane Lubchenco, U.S. Science Envoy, University Distinguished Professor and Advisor in Marine Studies, Oregon State University Jane Lubchenco was the first woman to be appointed Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere and...

Andrew H. Knoll, Fisher Professor of Natural History, Departments of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, and Earth and Planetary Sciences, Harvard University We live on a mature planet shaped by four billion years of evolution and environmental change...

John H. Shaw, Chair of the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences; Harry C. Dudley Professor of Structural and Economic Geology; and Professor of Environmental Science and Engineering, School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University...

Joe Roman, Sarah and Daniel Hrdy Fellow in Conservation Biology, Harvard University; Fellow at the Gund Institute for Ecological Economics, University of Vermont Whales have long been valued as a source of oil and whalebone. Treated as a commodity...