PULLMAN, Wash. — John Terborgh, one of the world’s leading experts on tropical ecology and conservation, will deliver Washington State University’s annual Lane Lecture in Environmental Science Thursday, Sept. 27. Terborgh’s presentation, titled “New Horizons in Global Conservation,” is slated for 7:30 p.m. in Todd Hall Auditorium on the Pullman campus.
Terborgh is the James B. Duke Professor of Environmental Science and co-director for the Center of Tropical Conservation at Duke University. A reception and book signing of his latest book, “Requiem for Nature,” follow the lecture in Todd Hall Atrium.
The many consequences of habitat fragmentation are the central theme of Terborgh’s work. Since 1973 he has operated a field station in Peru’s Manu National Park, where he has pursued his studies of tropical ecology related to birds and mammals.
A National Academy of Science member, he has received the prized John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Fellowship and the NAS Daniel Giraud Elliot Medal for his research. He is the author of several other books, including “Diversity and the Tropical Rainforest.” He serves on boards or advisory committees for The Nature Conservancy, World Wildlife Fund, The Wildlands Project, Cultural Survival, and both the primate and ecology specialists groups of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.
WSU’s Lane Family Lectureship in Environmental Science is endowed by a gift from former publisher of Sunset Magazine, books and films, L.W. “Bill” Lane Jr. and his wife, Jean. According to the Lanes, the lectureship expresses their commitment to helping society “recognize and solve problems related to the environment.”
The Robert and Wendi Lane Fellowships and Scholarships, which will be announced for the 2000-01 academic year before the lecture, were created in 1992 through a gift from the Lanes’ son and daughter-in-law.
Previous lectures have been delivered by Lane, ethnobotanist and tropical rainforest conservationist Mark Plotkin, zero-population-growth advocate Paul Ehrlich, environmental lawyer Ann Strong, Earth Day founder Denis Hayes and former Environmental Protection Agency administrator William K. Reilly.
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