Campus Connection

Columbia University ecologist to give presentations on campus

A renowned professor of ecology will give two presentations at UW-La Crosse as part of the annual Warner Memorial Seminar in Ecology. Shahid Naeem, who teaches in Columbia University’s Department of Evolution, Ecology and Environmental Biology, will give the presentations in 1309 Centennial Hall. They include:

• Tuesday, May 1, 5:30 p.m.— Public Presentation: "Sustainability in an age of mass extinction"
• Wednesday, May 2, 4 p.m. — Scientific Presentation: "Biodiversity as a multidimensional construct"

Naeem, who also directs Columbia’s Earth Institute Center for Environmental Sustainability (EICES), received a doctorate from the University of California, Berkeley. He was a postdoctoral fellow at Imperial College of London, the University of Copenhagen and the University of Michigan. Naeem served on the faculties of the University of Washington and the University of Minnesota before joining Columbia University in 2003. Naeem studies the ecological and environmental consequences of biodiversity loss. He is interested in how changes in the distribution and abundance of plants, animals and microorganisms affect ecosystem functions and, by extension, how ecosystem services are affected. Naeem’s current fieldwork includes American northeastern deciduous forests, inner Mongolian grasslands in China and African agro-ecosystems. He is actively involved in bringing the science of biodiversity and ecosystem function to conservation, restoration and policy development. Naeem’s innovation in ecology research has also earned him recognition outside of academia. The recipient of both the Buell and Mercer awards from the Ecological Society of America, he was honored with an Aldo Leopold Leadership Fellowship in 2001, which promotes leadership, communication, public service and the development of effective, science-based policy in the environmental sciences. The Warner Memorial Seminar in Ecology honors former Biology Professor James “Jim” Warner, who taught at UWL from 1963 until retiring in 1996. Warner established the Terrestrial Field Ecology Course Fund in the Department of Biology to support outdoor laboratory equipment for field ecology courses. Warner died Sept. 29, 2011, of complications of a severe automobile accident. Upon his death, his name was added to the fund and it expanded to include scholarly seminars.   If you go— Who:  Shahid Naeem, professor of ecology in Columbia University’s Department of Evolution, Ecology and Environmental Biology       What/when:

• Tuesday, May 1, 5:30 p.m.— Public Presentation: "Sustainability in an age of mass extinction"
• Wednesday, May 2, 4 p.m. — Scientific Presentation: "Biodiversity as a multidimensional construct"

Where: 1309 Centennial Hall           Admission: Free; open to all.