Ecologist to Speak on Balancing Human and Natural Systems

Chestertown, MD, March 26, 2001 — Dr. Stephen Kellert, professor of social ecology at the Yale University School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, will speak Thursday, April 19, 2001, at 7:30 p.m. in the Litrenta Lecture Hall, Dunning Hall, Washington College. Dr. Kellert will address the topic "Connecting Human and Natural Systems: The Importance of Healthy Natural Processes and Diversity in Human Development and Society." The lecture is free and open to the public.

Dr. Kellert's work focuses on the connection between human and natural systems with a particular interest in the value of biological diversity and its conservation. He has authored over 100 publications including Kinship to Mastery: Biophilia in Human Evolution and Development (Island Press, 1997); The Value of Life: Biological Diversity and Human Society (Island Press, 1996); and The Biophilia Hypotheses (with E. O. Wilson, Island Press, 1993), a work that explores human values in conservation biology and nature. His earlier work, Ecology, Economics, Ethics: The Broken Circle (with F. H. Bormann, Yale University Press, 1991), highlights his interest in environmental ethics that has made him a major figure in conservation biology.

Dr. Kellert also will speak on Wednesday, April 18, 2001, at 7:00 p.m. at the Avalon Theatre in Easton, Md., as part of the 2001 Eastern Shore Lecture Series. His talk is titled "Values of Nature, Sense of Place, and Human Well-Being." The Eastern Shore Lecture Series is a subscription series co-sponsored by the Washington College Center for the Environment and Society, the Adkins Arboretum, the Eastern Shore Land Conservancy, the Horsehead Wetlands Center and the Maryland Center for Agroecology.

For subscription information, contact the Washington College Center for the Environment and Society at 410-810-7171 or the Adkins Arboretum at 410-634-2847, or visit http://ces.washcoll.edu.