Lecture series examines change
University Regents Professor of Global Ecology Steven Running, Ph.D. is the first speaker in the 2017 Honors Symposium lecture series at Flathead Valley Community College. Running will speak at 7 p.m. on Feb. 23 about the potential consequences and opportunities resulting from global warming. (Photo courtesy of Flathead Valley Community College)
Flathead Valley Community College’s 2017 Honors Symposium will unfold the stories of changing environments, cultures, communities and wilderness over the next month.
The Honors Symposium was built on a foundation of bringing public discussion to issues relevant to Northwest Montana. This year’s lecture series kicks off Thursday and will feature six nights of speakers who will follow the 2017 theme, “The Way Forward: Why Change is Inevitable.”
The lectures will run through March 23. Free and open to the public, all lectures begin at 7 p.m. in the large community room in FVCC’s Arts and Technology Building.
“This year’s Honors Symposium will explore several topics where change is inevitable or has already occurred, as well as the opportunities and consequences resulting from these changes,” said event organizer Dr. Christina Relyea.
University Regents Professor of Global Ecology Dr. Steven Running will begin the symposium on Feb. 23 with a presentation titled, “Global Warming Could Bring Crisis… or Opportunity.”
In addition to teaching at the University of Montana, Running is the Land Team Leader for the NASA Earth Observing System Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer. He was a chapter lead author for the “4th Assessment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change,” which earned a Nobel Peace Prize in 2007. Running has published more than 300 scientific articles and two books, and was designated one of “The World’s Most Influential Scientific Minds” by Geosciences in 2014.
The 2017 Honors Symposium is funded in part by the Kalispell branch of the American Association of University Women, FVCC Alumni and Friends and the Theodore Chase Endowment Fund.
For more information, visit www.fvcc.edu/honorssymposium or call Relyea at 406-756-3946.
Additional lectures in this year’s Honors Symposium include:
March 2: “Managing the Integrity of the Wild” presented by Jim Williams, M.S., Regional Supervisor of Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks Region 1.
March 9: “Intersections: The Tale of Cultural Fusion at St. Hilda’s School for Girls, Wuchang, China” presented by Dr. Judith Liu, Ph.D., Professor of Sociology at the University of San Diego.
March 14: “The Past, Present and Future of Flathead Lake — and Lakes Beyond” presented by Dr. Jim Elser, Ph.D., Bierman Professor of Ecology at the University of Montana and Director of the Flathead Lake Biological Station.
March 16: “Bacteria, Their Viruses, and How They Taught Us to Perform Genome Surgery” presented by Dr. Blake Weidenheft, Ph.D., Assistant Professor at Montana State University.
March 23: “Predicting Outbreaks and the Myth of Sisyphus” presented by Dr. Marshall Bloom, M.D., Associate Director of the Division of Intramural Research at the Rocky Mountain Laboratories.