Professor Pamela Matson on 'Transitions to Sustainability in Agriculture' - Miegunyah Lecture
Date: Tuesday 24 May 2011 Listen to the lecture
Download the presentation Time: 5.30-6.30pm Venue: Copland Theatre, Arts West - formerly Economics and Commerce (Building 148), Parkville Map (reference G14) Enquiries: Lyn Spokes
Earth is undergoing rapid population growth, urbanization, industrial growth, and consumption of natural resources, with concomitant changes in the global life support systems. How can we meet the needs of the 9 billion people while at the same time sustaining the ecosystems, air, water and climate systems on which we rely for our and future generations’ well-being and survival? Professor Matson will discuss some of the critical challenges at the nexus of food, water and global environmental change, and will present research examples from a multi-disciplinary project in Mexico in which use-inspired research both improved scientific understanding and contributed to sustainable management approaches.
Biography
Pamela Matson is an interdisciplinary Earth scientist who works to reconcile the needs of people and the planet in the 21st century. Her research addresses a range of environment and sustainability issues, including sustainability of agricultural systems; vulnerability of particular people and places to climate change; the consequences of tropical deforestation on atmosphere, climate and water systems; and the environmental consequences of global change in the nitrogen and carbon cycles. With multi-disciplinary teams of researchers, managers, and decision makers, she has worked to develop agricultural approaches that reduce environmental impacts while maintaining livelihoods and human wellbeing.
Dr. Matson is the author of numerous scientific publications and books, including the National Research Council volume titled “Our Common Journey: A Transition toward Sustainability.” A MacArthur Fellow and a Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences as well as the American Academy of Arts and Science, she is the founding co-chair of the National Academies Roundtable on Science and Technology for Sustainability, a past president of the Ecological Society of America, serves on the Board of the World Wildlife Fund, and was a member of the science leadership committee for the International Geosphere-Atmosphere Programme. She currently is a member of the National Academies’ Committee on America’s Climate Choices, chairs the panel on Advancing the Science of Climate Change, and recently completed the panel report on “Advancing the Science of Climate Change”.
At Stanford, she is the dean of the School of Earth Sciences, a senior fellow at the Woods Institute for Environment, and co-leads the Initiative on Environment and Sustainability, an effort that brings together faculty from around the university to help solve critical resource and environment challenges of the century. She is also the scientific director of the Leopold Leadership Program, a program that provides leadership and communications training to environmental scientists and analysts.