‘Ecology of War’ forum at Mount Mercy April 16

Mount Mercy University will host “Ecology of War” with special guest Dr. Gary Machlis, as part of a Connections Lecture Series on Monday, April 16, 7:00 p.m., in the Chapel of Mercy, Busse Center. The lecture is free and open to the public; seating may be limited.

Machlis, professor of conservation at the University of Idaho, is also currently a science advisor to the National Park Service. His program will offer audience members first-hand perspectives on the human impacts on the environment during warfare outlined in his 2008 BioScience article and his 2011 book, Warfare Ecology. A New Synthesis for Peace and Security.

Machlis is the first scientist appointed to the position of advisor to the director with the NPS and advises on a range of science policy issues and programs. He also serves as lead scientist for the Department of the Interior's Strategic Sciences Working Group, an interdisciplinary team of scientists responding to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

Machlis received his bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of Washington in Seattle and his Ph.D. in human ecology from Yale. He has written numerous books and scientific papers on issues of conservation, including The State of the World's Parks (1985), the first systematic study of threats to protected areas around the world. He is currently at work on his next co-authored book, The Structure and Dynamics of Human Ecosystems, to be published by Yale University Press in 2011. His research has been published in journals as varied as Science, Society and Natural Resources, Conservation Biology, BioScience, and Climatic Change.

He has conducted studies in over 130 U.S. National Parks as diverse as Everglades, the Statue of Liberty, and Yellowstone. In 1996, his research program received a Hammer Award from the White House for its role in improving efficiency in government. Machlis has been a leader in collaborative higher education and serves on the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) National Committee on Opportunities for Women and Minorities in Science.

For his work developing the Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Units Network, Machlis was a recipient of the Department of the Interior's 2000 Conservation Service Award, one of the highest awards the department grants to private citizens.

His current research activities include applying human ecology to conservation of national parks and protected areas, the environmental impacts of warfare and its resulting humanitarian crises, restoration of the Gulf of Mexico following the 2010 oil spill, and advancing science capacity in Haiti after its devastating earthquake. In 2010, Machlis was elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He is a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science,

George Wright Society, International Association for Ecology, Society for Conservation Biology, the World Conservation Union, and World Commission on Protected Parks.

The lecture is jointly sponsored by the Linn County Connections Program, the United Nations Group, a Ministry Grant from the Sisters of Mercy West/Midwest Community for sustainability initiatives, and the Mount Mercy Connections Lecture Series.