The Biological Sciences Division and the Mansueto Institute for Urban Innovation at the University of Chicago are hosting a series that will address climate change and its impact on public health and ecosystems and biological diversity, as well as sustainable responses to the crisis. The series is intended to stimulate cross-disciplinary conversation and collaboration on topics around sustainable development and climate change, according to the events’ organizers.
The “Distinguished Speaker Colloquium on Biological Sciences and Climate Change” will take place on three Fridays in February and March from 12-1 PM Central Time, and feature the following speakers:
- “Actions on the Climate Crisis Offer Major and Immediate Health Gains,” Jonathan Patz, Tony J. McMichael Professor and John P. Holton Chair of Health and the Environment and Director of the Global Health Institute at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, on Feb. 18
- "Adaptation Response to Climate Change: Evidence for Public Health," Sari Kovats, Associate Professor in the Department of Public Health, Environments and Society at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, on Mar. 11
- "Managing Landscapes to Reduce the Triple Anthropocene Threat,” Claire Kremen, Professor and President’s Excellence Chair in Biodiversity at University of British Columbia, on Mar. 25
Patz, who co-chaired the health report for the first Congressionally mandated U.S. National Assessment on Climate Change and was a lead author for the Nobel Peace Prize-awarded United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, has found that reducing greenhouse gas emissions could cut by nearly half the number of premature deaths globally. Kovats, an environmental epidemiologist, has co-authored scientific assessments of climate change risk and health for the World Health Organization and World Bank and bodies in the United Kingdom and Europe. Kremen, a previous MacArthur Fellow and founding faculty director for the Center for Diversified Farming Systems at the Berkeley Food Institute, researches how to encourage sustainable farming practices through agricultural diversification.
“The speakers were selected by the Biological Sciences Division’s faculty committee because of their field-defining work in sustainability, which is a critical area of research,” said Luís M. A. Bettencourt, PhD, director of the Mansueto Institute and Professor of Ecology and Evolution at the University of Chicago. “It’s exciting and important for us to play a leading role at University of Chicago and beyond to advance sustainability as a research priority across disciplines.”
