Archive for April, 2009

Digging into the Past to Find the Future: Paleoecology Meets Restoration Ecology

dnorris10 April 21st, 2009

David A. Burney, Director of Conservation at the National Tropical Botanical Garden in Hawaii, will present “Digging into the Past to Find the Future: Paleoecology Meets Restoration Ecology” at the 28th annual Richard G. Osgood Memorial Lecture on Wednesday, April 15, at The College of Wooster. The event, which is free and open to the public, begins at 7:30 p.m. in Gault Recital Hall of Scheide Music Center (525 E. University St.). A dessert reception will follow this lecture in the lobby of Scovel Hall (944 College Mall).

Burney’s past research has focused on endangered species, paleoenvironmental studies, and causes of extinction. He has more than 30 years of practical experience in conservation, including serving as a technical consultant for Wildlife Conservation Society, Conservation International, The Nature Conservancy, BBC Natural History Unit, National Museums of Kenya, United Nations Development Program, USDA, US Fish & Wildlife Service, and other organizations.

Burney is also an adjunct professor at the University of Hawaii-Manoa and the Université d’Antananarivo (Madagascar). Prior to moving to Kauai, he was a professor at Fordham University in New York for 15 years. He received an M.Sc. in conservation biology from the University of Nairobi (Kenya) and a Ph.D. in zoology with a minor in botany from Duke University. He is author of more than 100 scientific articles and monographs, many concerning the processes of extinction and environmental change. In 2006 he was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship to write a book on his work at Makauwahi Cave on Kauai, coming out soon at Yale Press. His research has been featured on National Geographic Television, Discovery Channel, Hawaii Public Television, NOVA, and National Public Radio.

With his wife, Lida Pigott Burney, he has established the Makauwahi Cave Reserve on Kauai to protect, research, and restore Hawaii’s richest fossil and archaeological site and reestablish thousands of native plants on the surrounding landscape. He is currently carrying out large scale native plant restorations at Kilohana Crater, Nualolo Kai, Lehua Islet (Niihau), and NTBG’s Limahuli and Lawai gardens.
The Richard G. Osgood, Jr., Memorial Lectureship in Geology was endowed in 1981 by his three sons in memory of their father, a paleontologist with an international reputation who taught at Wooster from 1967 until 1981. Funds from this endowment are used to bring a well-known scientist interested in paleontology and/or stratigraphy to the campus each year to lecture and meet with students.

The lecture is sponsored by the Department of Geology and the Richard G. Osgood, Jr., Memorial Lecture Endowed Fund. Additional information is available by phone (330-263-2380) or e-mail.

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The Morality of Mercy

dnorris10 April 16th, 2009

Heidi Hurd, the David C. Baum Professor of Law and Philosophy at the University of Illinois College of Law, will present “The Morality of Mercy” at the 12th Annual Bell Distinguished Lectureship in Law on Thursday, April 9, at The College of Wooster. The free public lecture will begin at 7:30 p.m. in Lean Lecture Room of Wishart Hall (303 E. University St.). A dessert reception will precede the event at 7 p.m.

Hurd is a scholar in the areas of criminal law, torts, political theory, and general jurisprudence. She served as the University of Illinois College of Law’s 11th Dean from 2002 through 2007 and is currently co-director of the College’s Program in Law and Philosophy and the co-editor-in-chief of Law and Philosophy (Kluwer Press). Hurd received her B.A. from Queen’s College, her M.A from Dalhousie University and her J.D., and Ph.D. from the University of Southern California. She has taught law and political theory in Hungary, Germany, and Ukraine; was a Visiting Research Fellow in the Law Program of Australian National University’s Research School of Social Sciences in Canberra, Australia; and held the post of visiting professor at the University of Tel Aviv School of Law. Hurd has authored a number of articles that have appeared in the nation’s top law and philosophy journals, including Yale Law Journal, Stanford Law Review, Michigan Law Review, Legal Theory, Law and Philosophy, Chicago Law Forum, and Notre Dame Law Review. Hurd is also the author of Moral Combat (Cambridge University Press, 1999).

The Bell Distinguished Lectureship in Law was endowed in 1999 by Jennie M. Bell and Samuel H. Bell, a 1947 College of Wooster graduate and a Federal Judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Ohio. The purpose is to engage students, faculty, members of the legal profession, and members of the community in a legal issue that has broad implications for society. The Bells hope, by way of this lectureship, to bring the best minds of the legal profession to Wooster students and the local community. This lectureship also joins their long-held affection for the law and faith in the values derived from a liberal arts education.

The Bell Distinguished Lectureship is sponsored by The Bell Lectureship Endowed Fund and The College of Wooster’s Pre-Law Advising Program. For additional information, call 330-263-2380.

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