Global Sustainability Science Research Opportunities

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The Sustainability Institute is pleased to welcome Dr. Mark Stafford Smith to Penn State University on Monday, December 4th, to share Future Earth’s research agenda and explore opportunities for funded research projects to address global environmental challenges in the Anthropocene Era. Dr. Stafford Smith chairs the Science Committee at Future Earth, a global platform for international scientific collaboration, providing the knowledge required for societies in the world to face risks posed by global environmental change and to seize opportunities in a transition to global sustainability. The purpose of the meeting is to understand Future Earth’s research priorities and funding mechanisms, to begin identifying researchers at Penn State who would like to collaborate on research proposals, and to formulate a strategy for leveraging Penn State’s strengths across a variety of disciplines to engage in global research networks. We encourage you to share this invitation with your colleagues to join in the discussion of sustainability science research opportunities.

Global Sustainability Science Research Opportunities

Dr. Mark Stafford Smith

Monday, December 4, 2017 , 3:30 – 5:00 pm

Wine and Cheese Reception, 5:00-6:30 pm

Penn State Room at the Nittany Lion Inn

RSVP

Dr. Stafford Smith is the Science Director of CSIRO’s Climate Adaptation Flagship in Canberra, Australia, and Chair of the Science Committee of Future Earth. At CSIRO he oversees an interdisciplinary program of research on many aspects of adapting to climate change. He has more than 30 years experience in drylands systems ecology, management and policy, including senior roles such as Program Leader of CSIRO’s Centre for Arid Zone Research in Alice Springs, and then CEO of the Desert Knowledge Cooperative Research Centre. During this time he was a task leader under the Global Change and Terrestrial Ecosystems core project of the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP). He was also a key contributor to the AridNET international network of drylands researchers that devised the Dryland Development Paradigm. In the past decade his research focus has turned more to adaptation to climate change. He was an ICSU-appointed member then vice-chair of IGBP’s Scientific Committee during 2003-2009; and co-chair of the Planet Under Pressure: New Knowledge Towards Solutions conference on global environmental change in the lead up to Rio+20 in 2012.