World Wildlife Fund

WASHINGTON DC, January 6, 2009 – Dr. Paul Ehrlich, President of the Center for Conservation Biology and Bing Professor of Population Studies at Stanford University, will speak on “The Dominant Animal and the Future of Biodiversity” at World Wildlife Fund (WWF) on Thursday, January 8, 2009 at 4:30 p.m.  The lecture is part of the Kathryn Fuller Science for Nature Seminar series, which brings distinguished scientists from a variety of fields to Washington, D.C. to present cutting edge research of central importance to international conservation. 

Paul R. Ehrlich has been a pioneer in alerting the public to the problems of overpopulation, and in raising issues of population, resources, and the environment as matters of public policy. Co-founder with Peter H. Raven of the field of co-evolution, he has also pursued long-term studies of the structure, dynamics, and genetics of natural butterfly populations.

Professor Ehrlich's research group covers several areas. It continues to study the dynamics and genetics of natural populations of checkerspot butterflies (Euphydryas) - research which has applications to such problems as the control of insect pests and optimum designs for nature reserves. A central focus of his group is investigating ways that human-disturbed landscapes can be made more hospitable to biodiversity. This work in "countryside biogeography" is under the direction of Dr. Gretchen Daily, founder of this field of study. The Ehrlich group's policy research on the population-resource-environment crisis takes a broad overview of the world situation, but also works intensively in such areas of immediate legislative interests as endangered species and the preservation of genetic resources. A special interest of Ehrlich's is cultural evolution, especially with respect to environmental ethics.

Professor Ehrlich is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Philosophical Society, and a member of the National Academy of Sciences. With a Ph.D. from the University of Kansas, Professor Ehrlich has also received several honorary degrees, the John Muir Award of the Sierra Club, the Gold Medal Award of the World Wildlife Fund International, a MacArthur Prize Fellowship, the Crafoord Prize of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences (given in lieu of a Nobel Prize in areas where the Nobel is not given), in 1993 the Volvo Environmental Prize, in 1994 the United Nations' Sasakawa Environment Prize, in 1995 the Heinz Award for the Environment, in 1998 the Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement and the Dr. A. H. Heineken Prize for Environmental Sciences, in 1999 the Blue Planet Prize, in 2001 the Eminent Ecologist Award of the Ecological Society of America and the Distinguished Scientist Award of the American Institute of Biological Sciences.

This lecture is funded through the Kathryn Fuller Science for Nature Fund, which honors Kathryn S. Fuller, president and CEO of World Wildlife Fund from 1989 to 2005.