Fikret Berkes
University of Manitoba
“Sustainability for the anthropocene? Adaptive governance in a multi-level world”
Dr. Berkes is Distinguished Professor at the University of Manitoba and Canada Research Chair, Community-based Center for Resource Management. The objective of the Center’s program is to advance the knowledge on commons, investigating different kinds of community-based management, with linkages from the community to the international level. [Plenary video]
Robin Chazdon
University of Connecticut
“Tropical forest regeneration and restoration: creating new landscapes for people and forests”
Dr. Chazdon is professor emerita in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Connecticut. Her research covers tropical forest ecology and regeneration, biodiversity conservation and restoration of tropical forests, tropical second-growth forest dynamics, biodiversity conservation in agricultural landscapes of Mesoamerica, socio-ecological systems. [Plenary video]
Kim Cobb
Georgia Institute of Technology
“Climate science and public policy – a shifting landscape of risk and opportunity”
Dr. Kim Cobb is ADVANCE Professor and Georgia Power Faculty Scholar at Georgia Institute of Technology. Cobb’s group’s mission is to uncover the mechanisms of global climate change, both natural and anthropogenic, in order to inform projections of future climate change. [Plenary video]
Eric Pianka
University of Texas at Austin
“Towards a periodic table of niches”
Dr. Erick Pianka is Denton A. Cooley Centennial Professor of Zoology at the University of Texas. His current work focuses on lizard communities in Australia. His research projects include study of the phylogeny and ecology of a number of groups of Australian lizards and an extensive study of the unique biotic landscape produced by Australian brush fires. Dr. Pianka is also known as “Lizard Man.” [Note: Dr. Pianka did not permit us to record a video of his talk.]
Jonathan Pruitt
University of California at Santa Barbara
“Keystone individuals in spider societies: some pros and cons”
Dr. Pruitt is assistant professor in the Department of Ecology Evolution and Marine Biology at UC Santa Barbara. Dr. Pruitt’s research focuses on the ecological consequences of individual variation in behavior for individuals, populations, and communities using a variety of invertebrate models, especially social spiders, to address these topics. [Plenary video]
Jianguo (Jingle) Wu
Arizona State University
“Linking Biodiversity, Ecosystem Function, Ecosystem Services, and Human Wellbeing: The Landscape Sustainability Science Paradigm”
Dr. Wu is a Dean’s Distinguished Professor of Landscape Ecology and Sustainability Science at Arizona State University. His research includes the relationship between landscape pattern and biodiversity across multiple scales, land use and land cover change and habitat fragmentation, landscape sustainability science. [Plenary video]
