Orin Foster Environmental Lecture Series
EVS Seminar Series guest Dr. Alexander Werth, Hampden-Sydney College, presenting: "Becoming Jonah: Studying Whale Feeding and Its Anthropogenic Interactions"
Join us for the Orin Foster Environmental Lecture Series and Environment and Sustainability Seminar Series, where leading experts dive into the most pressing environmental challenges of our time.
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Monthly Events:
Lixing Sun
The Liars of Nature and the Nature of Liars: The Evolution of Cheating
Date: September 5, 2025
Time: 6 p.m
Location: 121 Cooke Hall, North Campus
Can't make it in person? Watch on ZOOM
Lixing Sun explores the paradoxical role of lying and deception in the natural world, revealing how cheating—far from being uniquely human—is deeply embedded in biology, evolution, and survival. Drawing from a broad range of examples, from camouflaging animals and mimicry in insects to genetic trickery and sexual deception, Sun argues that cheating is not a moral failing but a biological strategy shaped by natural selection. Sun illuminates how plants, animals, and even genes manipulate information to outcompete rivals, attract mates, or avoid predators, and he extends this evolutionary logic to human behavior, including politics, economics, and culture. With wit, scientific rigor, and storytelling flair, Sun shows that the ability to lie and deceive—and to detect cheating—is a fundamental force that leads to the vast diversity of life. In doing so, he invites readers to rethink honesty, trust, and the very nature of truth in both biology and society.
Lixing Sun, Distinguished Research Professor, Central Washington University
Healy Hamilton
The increasing value of biodiversity in a rapidly changing world
Date: September 26, 2025
Time: 6 p.m
Location: 210 Natural Sci. Complex, North Campus
Can't make it in person? Watch on ZOOM
Human activities are dramatically reshaping the planet, with profound consequences for all life on Earth. Most scientists agree that we are rapidly approaching, or have already exceeded, major boundaries of Earth’s life support systems that maintain a habitable planet. One of the most critical support systems is Biodiversity—the variety of life on Earth that is the source of all food, many medicines, and countless other invaluable goods and services that human societies depend upon. New technologies for assessing the status and trends of biodiversity are revealing the pace and extent of nature’s decline at the same time that we are learning just how valuable biodiversity is in providing nature-based solutions to stabilizing Earth’s life support systems. With examples from forestry, agriculture, energy and more, join biodiversity scientist Dr. Hamilton to learn how the natural world—and how we manage it—can be a source of solutions to many of today’s most pressing environmental challenges.
Healy Hamilton, Chief Scientist, Sustainable Forestry Initiative
Tracy Skalski
Erie County Climate Action & Sustainability Initiatives
Date: October 3, 2025
Time: 2 p.m
Location: 212 O'Brian Hall, North Campus
Can't make it in person? Watch on ZOOM
Erie County has been working diligently to reduce climate pollution in our community through climate action programs with goals to create a more sustainable Western New York. In 2015, Erie County convened an interdepartmental Green Team to develop a Climate Action & Sustainability Plan (CASP) to address operational reduction of greenhouse gases. The CASP is used as a roadmap for the Green Team as they look to implement identified action items. Successful programs will be highlighted in this presentation. The success of the internal plan opened doors for the County to create a Community Climate Action Plan (CCAP) which identifies ways the County can partner with the community to address climate pollution. Current programs from CCAP and actions individuals can take to reduce climate pollution will be discussed.
Tracy Skalski, Sustainability Coordinator, Erie County Department of Environment & Planning
Susan Clark
Understanding Community Preferences for Improved Energy Resilience
Date: October 10, 2025
Time: 2 p.m
Location: 212 O'Brian Hall, North Campus
Can't make it in person? Watch on ZOOM
Dr. Clark will be discussing The Planning for Solar at the Convergence of Resilience and Equity (SCORE) project, which has developed a novel approach to electric utility resilience planning that considers social benefits to communities. This study conducted in Seattle, WA, partnered with Seattle City Light (SCL), to integrate an analytic approach from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and community-driven resilience expertise from the University of Washington and the University at Buffalo. The objective was to integrate the critical needs and preferences of community members into resilience investment decision-making, specifically for prioritizing places of interest for solar and storage investments that would maintain services to the community during power outages. Although the analytic approach can be used to site resilience improvements based upon publicly available data, Dr. Clark argues that community input is necessary to gauge the social benefit of locations that otherwise may not be taken into consideration. This study evaluates how community engagement influences and improves the outcomes of the analytic approach to evaluating priorities for community resilience investments. Quantitative and qualitative data analysis from a community survey and focus groups reveals a distinct set of locations to be considered for siting resilience improvements and shows a preference towards certain locations over others based on a variety of factors, including household needs, proximity, quality of services, accessibility via public transport, affordability etc., which the analytical approach ignores. Ultimately, the process of community-engaged electric utility planning can be leveraged to help address inequities and reduce the social impacts of future power outages.
Susan Clark, Assistant Professor, Department of Environment and Sustainability, University at Buffalo
Ronell Bridgemohan
Micro to Macro: Microbial Insights to Macro Solutions—Using Microbial Source Tracking and Modeling to Determine Mitigation Strategies for Water Quality Issues in Tropical and Subtropical Systems
Date: October 24, 2025
Time: 2 p.m
Location: 212 O'Brian Hall, North Campus
Can't make it in person? Watch on ZOOM
Dr. Bridgemohan will share how microbial source tracking (qPCR and novel markers) and hydrologic/modeling approaches can pinpoint pollution sources and predict risk across watershed-to-coast scales. We’ll translate those findings into practical, nature-based and policy-ready strategies to improve water quality and resilience in tropical and subtropical environments.
Dr. Bridgemohan is a new Adjunct Lecturer at the University at Buffalo, currently teaching EVS 321: The Environmental Impact of War. The course explores the physical, chemical, and biological effects of war on the environment, using historical and contemporary case studies worldwide, and examines strategies for mitigating and remedying environmental damage. Dr. Bridgemohan's broader work bridges microbiology, hydrology, and environmental modeling to support One Health and community resilience initiatives.
Ronell Bridgemohan, Adjunct Lecturer, University at Buffalo
Doug Tallamy
Nature’s Best Hope
Date: November 14, 2025
Time: 6 p.m
Location: 190 Norton Hall, North Campus
Can't make it in person? Watch on ZOOM
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Recent headlines about global insect declines, the impending extinction of one million species worldwide, and three billion fewer birds in North America are a bleak reality check about how ineffective our current landscape designs have been at sustaining the plants and animals that sustain us. Such losses are not an option if we wish to continue our current standard of living on Planet Earth. The good news is that none of this is inevitable. Tallamy will discuss simple steps that each of us can- and must- take to reverse declining biodiversity on our own properties and will explain why we, ourselves, are nature’s best hope.
Doug Tallamy, T. A. Baker Professor of Agriculture, Department of Entomology and Wildlife Ecology, University of Delaware
Madalsa Singh
Prescriptive Decarbonization Solutions for Mid-Transition
Date: November 21, 2025
Time: 2 p.m
Location: 212 O'Brian, North Campus
Can't make it in person? Watch on ZOOM
We're navigating the messy middle of the energy transition—a phase where electrification is creating new dependencies between the power sector and other energy sectors like transportation, while fossil and clean energy technologies coexist in the same system. The pace of this transition varies dramatically across regions: some areas are racing ahead with clean technologies, while others remain heavily dependent on fossil energy. This uneven landscape creates trade-offs and challenges that require prescriptive decarbonization solutions tailored to local contexts—solutions that also address the unequal pollution and cost burdens borne by disadvantaged communities.
In this talk, I'll present case studies on developing place-based, equitable, and affordable decarbonization solutions for the transportation and electricity sectors—two of the world's largest sources of greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution. Through this work, I'll demonstrate how spatially-explicit analysis can guide effective decision-making in the energy transition.
Madalsa Singh, Assistant Professor, Golisano Institute of Sustainability, Rochester Institute of Technology
Cultivating UB’s Premier Community Garden: An On Campus Application of the Miyawaki Forest Method Omar Suri, UB Sustainability, University at Buffalo
Snowy Owls and Lemmings: 35 Years of Predator-Prey Dynamics in the Arctic Denver Holt, Owl Research Institute
Seed Saving and Climate Resilience in Western New York Josh Randall, Natural Resources Educator, Cornell Cooperative Extension, Niagara County
Lessons from 65 years of Observing Wolves and Moose on a Wilderness Island John Vucetich, Distinguished Professor, Michigan Technical University
The Academic Life and Times of Jordan Fox Jordan Fox, Associate Professor, Department of Sociology and Criminology, Department of Environment And Sustainability, University at Buffalo
Evaluating how prairie restorations influence native bee communities Dan Cariveau, Associate Professor, Department of Entomology, University of Minnesota
Nature-Based Solutions for Climate Adaptation in Cities Nancy Grimm, Regents Professor, Virginia M. Ullman Professor of Ecology, School of Life Sciences, Arizona State University
Plants, Places, People, and Social Structures: Exploring Sites, Archives, and Familial Memory Alissa Ujie Diamond, Assistant Professor, Department of Urban and Regional Planning, University at Buffalo
The Bird Ring: how colonial empire haunts contemporary bird research in the Tropics
Lydia Gibson, Assistant Professor, Geogetown University
Ma ka hana ka ʻike: reflections on doing ocean conservation and how to do it better Steven Mana'oakamai Johnson, Assistant professor Cornell, Department of Natural Resources
Wallace Craig, the Wood Pewee, and Disability Gain in Environmental Science
Kristoffer Whitney, Associate Professor, Department of Science, Technology, and Society, Rochester Institute of Technology
Managing Spotted Lanternfly in New Jersey: Experiences from the field
Tony Cullen, Ecologist; Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, US Department of Agriculture
The Age of Loneliness: Human-Wildlife Conflicts and Community Science
Laura Marris, author of The Age of Loneliness
Ecological Offsets as a Mechanism for Meaningful Restoration
Brad Mudrzynski, Ecologist, Land Ethic Planning & Restoration.
Urban Trees are a Matter of Life and Death
Geoffrey Donovan, Research Forester. Pacific Northwest Research Station, Forest Service, USDA.
Mesophication of Oak Ecosystems: The Consequences of Altered Fire Regimes
Gregory Nowacki, Regional Ecologist, US Forest Service- Eastern Region.
What do plants need? The Extractive Politics Hehind Water and Pollination Requirements.
Emily Reisman, Assistant Professor, Department of Environment and Sustainability; University at Buffalo, NY
Chasing Shadows: Exploring the Mysteries of Nighttime Ecology and a Nocturnal Primate
Stephanie Poindexter, Assistant Professor, Anthropology Department & Department of Environment and Sustainability; University at Buffalo, NY
Becoming Jonah: Studying Whale Feeding and Its Anthropogenic Interactions
Alexander Werth, Patterson Professor of Biology; Hampden-Sydney College, VA
In Situ Treatment of PFAS using Sonolysis within a Horizontal Treatment Well
Michelle Crimi, Dean of the Graduate School / Acting Associate Vice Provost for Research & Technology Transfer / Interim Vice Provost for Research & Technology / Professor of Environmental Engineering; Clarkson University, NY
Natural Resource Management in the Big Apple
Melissa Cohen, Department of Environmental Conservation
Achieving Urban Multifunctional Environments
Sheryl Hosler, University of Illinois Chicago, IL
Biological Invasions: Resilience Through Reframing
Vasiliy Lakoba
The American Chestnut Foundation
Human Behavior, Urban Design, and Ecosystem Functions: Moving towards a socio-biogeochemical framework
Amanda Suchy
Central Michigan University
North on the Wing
Bruce Beehler
Smithsonian Institute
Reconstructing Long-Term Environmental and Climatic Change in the Great Lakes Region Through Paleoecology
Albert Fulton II
Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology, University at Buffalo, NY.
An Environmental Justice Approach to Entrepreneurship and Innovation
Monica Miles
Assistant Professor, Engineering Education, University at Buffalo, NY. Mother Earth Literacies, LLC
Building Civic Infrastructures for Just Participation in Energy Industry Projects
Kirk Jalbert
Associate Professor, Department of Environment and Sustainability; EEB Director of Graduate Studies, University at Buffalo, NY
Meet the EVS DVS Fellow: Transdisciplinary Environmental Scholarship and Activism
Claudia Ford
Distinguished Visiting Scholar, Department of Environment and Sustainability, University at Buffalo, NY
Opportunities in Sustainability: A Promising Carreer Path
Swathi Karamcheti
Teaching Assistant Professor, Department of Environment and Sustainability, University at Buffalo, NY
The New York State Hemlock Initiative and Classical Biological Control of the invasive Hemlock Woolly Adelgid
Mark Whitmore
Senior Extension Associate and Forest Entomologist, Department of Natural Resources and the Environment, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY
"Is Brown the New Green? The fusion ecology of urban wildlands"
Dr. Claus Holzapfel
Department of Earth and Environmental Science, Rutgers Newark
Urban ecology: towards a multidisciplinary, multi-species, multi-city approach
Javier delBarco-Trillo, PhD
Communities united to protect snow leopards: Land of Snow Leopard
Almagul Osmonova, MSc
Director of Taalim-Forum NGO
Conserving wildlife and ecosystems in mixed-use landscapes
Christie Sampson, PhD
University of Calgary
Zooming In and Out: Coastal Ecogeomorphology across Scales
Kendall Valentine, PhD
Virginia Institute of Marine Science, College of William & Mary
People power and its potential for understanding urban biodiversity
Corey Callaghan, PhD
German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research, Leipzig Germany
Understanding the effects of urbanization to the ecology and evolution of stream biota to support sustainable cities
Piata Marques, PhD
Center for Environmental Research in the Anthropocene, University of Toronto
Promoting community-informed research and social equity in urban green space management
Mayra Rodiguez Gonzalez, PhD
Gund Institute for Environment and the Spatial Analysis Laboratory, University of Vermont
Analyses of structure and dynamics of tropical and temperate forests
Jenny Zambrano, PhD
School of Biological Sciences, Washington State University
Life on the reef: competition and predation of newly settled octocorals
Chris Wells, PhD
Department of Geology, University at Buffalo
Partner or Predator? Engaging China in Sustainable Rubber Initiatives
Juliet Lu, PhD
Atkinson Center for Sustainability, Department of Global Development, Cornell University
Food systems and life cycle assessment
Andrew Berardy, PhD
Center for Nutrition, Lifestyle, and Disease Prevention, School of Public Health, Loma Linda University
Sustainable Development
Pat Keys, PhD
Colorado State University
Sponsored by the Department of Geography
Title To Be Announced
Michelle Fournet, PhD
The Cornell Lab of Ornithology, K. Lisa Yang Center for Conservation Bioacoustics, Cornell University
Title To Be Announced
Do Hyoung Kim, PhD
Department of Geography, University at Buffalo
Greenhouse Gas Emissions Associated with Waste Management Options
John Atkinson
Department of Civil, Structural, and Environmental Engineering, University at Buffalo
Streamflow and the environment: from deserts to Great Lakes
Corey Krabbenhoft
Department of Fisheries, Wildlife and Conservation Biology, University of Minnesota
Telling Stories about the Environment: Filmmaking as a Means of Disseminating and Discovering Knowledge about Our Ecological Predicament
John Fiege
Department of Media Study, University at Buffalo
Navigating the night: slow loris movement and conservation
Stephanie Poindexter
Department of Anthropology, University at Buffalo
Democracy and Environment
Barbara Wejnert
Department of Global Gender and Sexuality Studies, University at Buffalo
Department of Environment and Sustainability, University at Buffalo
Sustainability and Transdisciplinary Thinking
Craig Thomas
Department of Environment and Sustainability, University at Buffalo
Life in a changing world: Understanding community resilience and vulnerability to anthropogenic stresses
Ranjan Muthukrishnan
Indiana University, Environmental Resilience Institute
Hidden Ecologies: Exploring the social-ecological dynamics of urban waterfronts
Anne Toomey
Environmental Studies and Science, Pace University
Bridging organizations as innovative governance tools for socioecological governance in small-scale forest communities in the post-industrial world
John Boakye-Danquah
University of Saskatchewan
When it smells it pays': Sustainability science and policy on Peru's contaminated coast
Apollonya Porcelli
Brown University
Putting Efficiency in its place: situating paradigms of agricultural sustainability
Emily Reisman
University of California, Santa Cruz
Collective, collaborative, and conflicting: insights on environmental governance in an era of environmental change
Abigail Sullivan
Indiana University
Carbon removal technologies: How can they be developed in the public interest?
Holly Buck
University of California, Los Angeles
Taking control to do more: how local governments and communities can enact effective climate mitigation policies
John Armstrong
University of California, Santa Cruz
The Impact of Intrinsic & Extrinsic Factors on Primate Social Structure & Disease Risk: Insights from the Genus Macaca
Krishna Balasubramaniam
Department of Population Health and Reproduction, School of Veterinary Medicine, UC Davis
Social Status and Reproductive Behavior in Naked Mole Rats
Melissa Holmes
Department of Psychology, University of Toronto, Mississauga
Envisioning a Sustainable Society: Reconsidering a Pioneering Call-to-Action by UB's Lester Milbrath
Adam Rome
Department of Environment and Sustainability, University at Buffalo
Social Inequality, Environmental Change and Urbanization in Greater Houston
Kevin Smiley
Department of Sociology, University at Buffalo
The evolution of life and landforms: Modeling the link between biological and geological processes
Katherine Kravitz
Department of Geosystems, GeoForschungsZentrum Potsdam
Q&A Session
Andrew Hoffman
The University of Michigan, Ross School of Business
How Culture Shapes the Climate Change Debate
Andrew Hoffman
University of Michigan, Ross School of Business
Video Recordings:
Video recordings of past seminars from the Department of Environment and Sustainability are available upon request. To access these recordings, please contact Isabel Porto-Hannes at isabelha@buffalo.edu.