Renowned ecologist Dr. G. David Tilman gives presentation linking past and future Nobel Conferences

On Friday, May 14, Gustavus will host a College Wide Colloquium featuring decorated American ecologist Dr. G. David Tilman. His lecture, titled “Can we feed the world and save the earth?” will be delivered at 2:30 p.m. in Nobel Hall’s Wallenburg Auditorium. The event is a preview of 2010’s Nobel Conference 46, which is titled “Making Food Good.” Tilman was selected as a speaker for this event because his work ties previous Nobel Conferences, mainly 2007’s “Heating Up: The Energy Debate,” and 2009’s “H20: Uncertain Resource,” together with this year’s topic.

“What we invited Dr. Tilman to do is to pull together our recent Nobel Conferences with our next conference on food,” Professor of Physics and Director of Nobel Conference Charles Niederritter said.

Dr. G. David Tilman received his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan in 1976 and is currently Regent’s Professor and McKnight Presidential Chair in Ecology at the University of Minnesota. Besides teaching multiple subjects at the U of M, Tilman is also director of the Cedar Creek Ecosystem Science Reserve Long-term Ecological Research Station. His outstanding honors have included becoming a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, working as a Guggenheim Fellow and becoming a member of the National Academy of Science.

With such diverse experience in the lab and in the field, Tilman is the ideal candidate to transition between Nobel Conference topics.

“[Next Fall] is the third in a series of three Nobel Conference topics that relate to society’s pressing and important topics, [including] energy, water and food,” Neideritter said.

The Nobel Preview lecture will focus on a variety of Tilman’s ecological work, which focuses on his interests in biology and agriculture. His research explores the behavior of both natural and human-managed ecosystems and their ability to provide resources, such as food, energy or other ecosystem services. As a researcher mainly in the Midwest, Tilman has also studied the effectiveness and ethics of biofuel production in grassland areas. Some of Tilman’s most popular work involves biodiversity and species competition in ecosystems, research that can eventually be applied to developing nations in providing high-yield crops in the face of changing food demand.

“With global warming and droughts in developing nations, it is important that we understand how crops will react. I think people need to start looking into these things, so this is a good topic,” Junior Environmental Studies and Geography Major Sisay Ashenafi said.

“I’ve been really happy lately with the speakers that Gustavus has been bringing in, especially since [environmentalist and author] Paul Hawken, so I’m excited to see what this lecture will be about. It’s a topic that I’m interested in learning about and also a global issue, not just a local conversation,” Junior Environmental Studies Major Anders Aarnevik said.

For his work, Tilman was recognized as the Most Highly Cited Environmental Scientist of the Decade by Essential Science Indicators in 2000 and more recently in 2008 was awarded the International Prize for Biology. Earlier this year, Tilman was awarded the 2010 Heineken Prize for Environmental Science by the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. These distinct honors have Dr. Tilman on his way to earning the most prestigious of prizes in the world of art and science.

“He’ll get a Nobel Prize soon I think,” Niederitter said.

The preview provides good information to all those interested in Nobel Conference 46.

“This is a nationally recognized conference, but a fair few of our own faculty and students ignore it,” Neideritter said. “But this is important.”

“Making Food Good” will feature seven distinguished speakers. Ph.D. Professor of Economics from the University of Dehli, India Bina Agarwal will discuss agriculture and land rights in relation to gender issues. Linda Bartoshuk, Presidential Endowed Professor of Community Dentistry and Behavioral Science at the University of Florida, Gainesville will explore the sensation of taste and why desirable foods taste so appealing. Executive Director of Global Crop Diversity Trust in Rome, Italy, Cary Fowler will discuss his work on crop diversity and climate change, in relation to pressures on food demand. Jeffrey Friedman, a Ph.D., M.D. and geneticist from Rockefeller University in New York will study the human body and its control of food intake, specifically the hormonal signal that regulates food intake and energy expenditure. Francis Moore Lappe, a co-founder of the Small Planet Institute in Cambridge, Mass. will discuss social action and its effects on the world’s ecosystems, partly through a study of how individual consumerism affects world hunger. Nutritionist, sociologist and public health expert Marion Nestle will be the key speaker on food politics and policy, as well as its relation to nutrition and sustainability. Paul Thompson, W.K. Kellogg Chair in Agricultural, Food and Community Ethics at Michigan State University, East Lansing will speak on the ethics of agriculture. As an ethicist, Thompson will examine contemporary technology in agriculture and what makes farming good.

The seven speakers of Nobel Conference 46 begin their lectures October 5, 2010 and continue through Oct. 6 in the two day event.