The talks will mark the first annual presentation of its kind, the Lamberson Ecology Lecture Series, named after a retired HSU professor of mathematics.
The inaugural speaker, Marc Mangel, Distinguished Professor of Applied Mathematics and Statistics at University of California-Santa Cruz (UCSC) and a member of the California Academy of Science and the Royal Society of Edinburgh, will deliver a lecture geared to the general public on Thursday, February 11, at 7 p.m. in Founders Hall 118. The subject is “Doing Policy-Relevant Science, Understanding Policy-Relevant Science: The Essential Tension.”
Mangel, who is also director of the Center for Stock Assessment Research, a UCSC partnership with the Santa Cruz Laboratory of the National Marine Fisheries Service, will examine how the nature of environmental problems differs from other kinds of obstacles. He also will address how science can support policy making and what can be learned from other disciplines.
Mangel’s preceding technical lecture, also open to the public, is scheduled the same day at 4 p.m. in Goodwin Forum, Nelson Hall East. It is titled “Combining Life History Theory, Experiments and Field Studies in Setting River Flows for California Steelhead.”
The author of numerous books and journal articles, Mangel will kick off the new Lamberson lecture series, delivered under the auspices of the Department of Mathematics. The series takes its name and funding from Roland Lamberson, Arcata, professor of mathematics at Humboldt State from 1980 to 2004. “Professor Lamberson has made substantial contributions in the application of mathematics to ecology and natural resources,” the department said, “and he continues his research.”
Further information is available from Mathematics Professor Chris Dugaw, coordinator of the department’s Environmental Systems Graduate Program, at 826-4251 and Dugaw@humboldt.edu.