Ecologists to showcase research at campus symposium

Current faculty research will be the focus of the UW–Madison Ecology Group’s Seventh Annual Symposium Sept. 20-21.

Guest ecologist Pamela Matson, a professor of environmental studies and director of the Earth Systems Program at Stanford University, will open the free public event with a lecture, “A Transition to Sustainability? Development and Environment in a Changing World,” 7 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 20, in Memorial Union’s Tripp Commons.

The symposium reconvenes 1-5 p.m. Friday, Sept. 21, in the Wisconsin Historical Society Auditorium with briefings by six UW–Madison professors on current ecological research in the fields of botany, geography, landscape architecture, soil science and zoology. Matson will conclude the afternoon with a second lecture, “Agricultural Intensification in the Yaqui Valley: Is it ‘Saving Land for Nature’?” A reception will follow.

Symposium organizer the UW–Madison Ecology Group is composed of faculty and academic staff members from throughout the campus. Cosponsors are the University Lectures Committee, the Institute for Environmental Studies and several other academic departments.

For information about the event or the ecology group, contact symposium coordinator Emily Steel, (608) 265-6712.