Orin Foster Environmental Lecture Series
EVS Seminar Series guest Doug Tallamy presenting: "Nature’s Best Hope"
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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📢 Stay informed about all our seminars and public lectures by subscribing to our announcement list! No UB email is required! Anyone can join and stay updated on our events.
Monthly Events:
We have an exciting lineup of speakers coming this fall 2026! Stay tuned—we’ll be updating this page soon with more details.
Prescriptive Decarbonization Solutions for Mid-Transition
Madalsa Singh, Assistant Professor, Golisano Institute of Sustainability, Rochester Institute of Technology
Nature's Best Hope
Doug Tallamy, Baker Professor of Agriculture, Department of Entomology and Wildlife Ecology, University of Delaware
Turning Gray to Green: Post-Industrial Restoration and Urban Ecological Connectivity in Buffalo, NY
Nicholas Henshue, Associate Teaching Professor, Department of Environment and Sustainability, University at Buffalo
Understanding Community Preferences for Improved Energy Resilience
Susan Clark, Associate Professor, Department of Environment and Sustainability, University at Buffalo
Erie County Climate Action & Sustainability Initiatives
Tracy Skalski, Sustainability Coordinator, Erie County Department of Environment & Planning
The increasing value of biodiversity in a rapidly changing world
Healy Hamilton, Chief Scientist, Sustainable Forestry Initiative
The Liars of Nature and the Nature of Liars: The Evolution of Cheating
Lixing Sun, Distinguished Research Professor, Central Washington University
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.