Keynote Speakers
Dr. Marina Alberti – University of Washington
Marina Alberti is Professor of Urban and Environmental Planning in the Department of Urban Design and Planning at the University of Washington (UW). She directs the UW Interdisciplinary Ph.D. Program in Urban Design and Planning and the Urban Ecology Research Laboratory (UERL). Her research interests focus on the impacts of alternative urban development patterns on ecosystem dynamics. She is especially interested in advanced interdisciplinary approaches to urban ecological problems, and has been Co-PI in the National Science Foundation Interdisciplinary Graduate Education and Research Traineeship program in Urban Ecology.
Dr. Ted Gragson – University of Georgia/Coweta LTER
Ted Gragson received his Ph.D. in Anthropology from the Pennsylvania State University in 1989. He is Professor and Head of the Department of Anthropology at the University of Georgia and Lead Principal Investigator at the Coweta LTER. His research interests focus on human ecology generally, with specific applications that include modeling/synthesis, land-use/land-use change, historical ecology, and spatially-explicit modeling.
Dr. Steward Pickett – Cary Institute of Ecosystem Study/Baltimore LTER
Steward T. A. Pickett received his Ph.D. in 1977 from the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. He served on the faculty of Rutgers University until 1987, where he taught ecology and participated in the honors and the minority affairs programs. In 1987, Dr. Pickett joined the staff of the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies, where he is currently Distinguished Senior Scientist. His research interests include spatial heterogeneity and temporal dynamics in ecological systems. Specific research has studied mechanisms of post-agricultural succession and the role of disturbance in primary forest. His research in landscape ecology includes pioneering experiments on the function of forest edges, studies of the riparian zones in Kruger National Park, South Africa, and the structure and dynamics of cities as ecological systems. He is Director of the Baltimore Ecosystem Study, one of two urban Long-Term Ecological Research sites in the United States. He was elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1992, and of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1993.
Dr. Rich Pouyat – USDA Forest Service
Richard Pouyat received his Ph.D in ecology from Rutgers University in 1992 and an M.S. in forest soils and B.S. in forest biology at the College of Environmental Science and Forestry in 1983 and 1980, respectively. Dr. Pouyat is a Bioclimatologist for Research and Development at the Washington DC headquarters of the United States Forest Service. He is an original co-principal investigator of the Baltimore Ecosystem Study; a Long Term Ecological Research site funded by the National Science Foundation. He also recently served as Vice President of Public Affairs for the Ecological Society of America. He has broad scientific interests and has used his extensive training in ecology, soil science, and biogeochemistry to investigate urban ecosystems and the effect of urban sprawl on natural systems. Although much of his research has been "basic" in nature, he has a strong interest in applying research to the solution of contemporary problems in natural resource management and policy, and to integrate the ecological and social sciences.
Dr. Charles Redman – Arizona State University – Phoenix LTER
Dr. Redman's interests include human impacts on the environment, sustainable landscapes, rapidly urbanizing regions, urban ecology, societal resilience, environmental education, and public outreach. His work focuses on global change and landscape transition, using both the tools of archaeology to acquire a very long-term perspective, and the cutting-edge techniques of remote sensing to project future scenarios from current patterns. Redman has been committed to interdisciplinary research since, as an archaeology graduate student, he worked in the field with botanists, zoologists, geologists, art historians, and ethnographers. As inaugural director of the School of Sustainability at Arizona State University, he is creating a new approach to higher education that is collaborative, transdisciplinary, and problem-oriented to address the enmeshed environmental, economic, and social challenges of the 21st century.
