Join us for the next Baker Center Energy and Environment Forum, which will take place on Thursday, February 28, at 1:00 pm in the Toyota Auditorium in the Baker Center.

 

Dr. Gary Machlis, from Clemson University, will give a 45-minute presentation and then lead a discussion with participants. His talk is titled:

 

The Future of Conservation in America

 

Abstract: These are turbulent times for conservation in the United States, and there is a need for both immediate and long-term responses to the assault on conservation and environmental protection currently underway. In this lecture, Dr. Machlis will sound the alarm and suggest practical strategies and a new and unified vision to advance conservation in the present and future. The lecture is based on his new book, The Future of Conservation in America: A Chart for Rough Water (University of Chicago Press, 2018), written with Jon Jarvis, the eighteenth director of the National Park Service.

 

Dr. Gary E. Machlis is a University Professor of Environmental Sustainability at Clemson University and served as Science Advisor to the Director of the U.S. National Park Service (NPS) during both terms of the Obama administration. He was the first scientist appointed to this position within the NPS, and, in this position, he advised the director on a range of science policy issues and programs. Dr. Machlis also served as co-Leader of the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Strategic Sciences Group, which conducts scientific assessments during major environmental crises. He joined the Clemson faculty in 2013; he was on the faculty at the University of Idaho from 1979-2013.

 

Dr. Machlis received his bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of Washington and his Ph.D. in human ecology from Yale. He has written numerous books and scientific papers on issues of conservation, human ecology, and sustainability, including The State of the World's Parks (1985), the first systematic study of threats to protected areas around the world. His most recent books (co-authored) are The Structure and Dynamics of Human Ecosystems (2017) and The Future of Conservation in America: A Chart for Rough Water (to be published in early 2018). His research has been published in journals as varied as Bioscience, Climatic Change, Conservation Biology, Society and Natural Resources, and Science. Dr. Machlis served as a founding Deputy Editor for Science Advances, the online scientific journal in the Science family of journals.

 

The Baker Center Energy and Environment Forum is an opportunity for academics to share their research findings with a broad set of academics, researchers, and students from outside their own discipline but who have a common interest in environment and energy issues. For more information about the Baker Center Energy and Environment Forum, visit the forum’s website: http://bakercenter.utk.edu/energy-environment/.