While all organisms modify their environment, humans have transformed the biosphere to the extent that we are living in a new geologic era – the Anthropocene. Collectively our activities are not only changing climates, but we are transforming energy and biogeochemical flows, coopting primary productivity, and changing land and ocean ecosystems. Moreover, these changes are accelerating the loss of biodiversity. How we navigate the transition into the Anthropocene is key to discovering sustainable futures.
Gunderson received bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Botany and a Ph.D. in Environmental Engineering Sciences, all from the University of Florida. He was a botanist with the US National Park Service in the Big Cypress and the Everglades regions of southern Florida, and a research scientist in the Department of Zoology at the University of Florida. Gunderson moved to Atlanta in 1999 as the founding chair of the Department of Environmental Sciences at Emory University. He teaches courses in ecology, policy and natural resource management. He has served as Chair of the Resilience Alliance and chaired the National Academy of Sciences, National Research Council Committee on Ecological Impacts of Road Density. He was Co-Editor in Chief of the journal, Ecology and Society, for two decades. In 2007, he was named a Beijer Fellow, of the Beijer Institute for Ecological Economics, Swedish Royal Academy of Sciences and in 2009 was named a Senior Fellow of the Agropolis Foundation in France. Gunderson has published seven books, 80 book chapters and over 100 peer reviewed articles. His work is highly cited; he is ranked in the 2% of environmental scientists in the US, based upon number of citations.
This event is free following admission into the Garden and will be available to view online via Facebook Live.
Schedule: June 15, 6 p.m. ET
Location: Mershon Hall