Former UF professor returns to talk about climate change

March 6, 2012

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — In honor of Climate Week, former University of Florida professor Stephen Mulkey will present the latest scientific findings on climate change at 7:30 p.m. March 13 in Smathers Library East, Room 1A.

His talk is titled “Losing Control of the Global Thermostat – Implications for Florida, the U.S. and the World.”

Mulkey will address UF’s options for responding to climate change, and how each of us individually, as well as our local institutions, can actively work toward sustainability.

Mulkey serves as president of Unity College in Maine, a liberal arts school that is highly respected for its strong environmental sciences curriculum.

This event is sponsored by UF’s Office of Sustainability, the Samuel Proctor Oral History Program, the Civic Media Center and the Gainesville Chapter of Citizens Climate Lobby.

From 1996 to 2008, Mulkey served as tenured faculty in UF’s department of botany and as a research associate with the School of Forest Resources and Conservation.

He also served as director of research and outreach/extension for the School of Natural Resources and Environment at UF, and as science adviser to the Century Commission for a Sustainable Florida.

Mulkey co-founded and directed the International Center for Tropical Ecology, a nationally ranked graduate training and conservation program during his tenure at the University of Missouri in St. Louis. He also worked for many years as a research associate for the Smithsonian Institution, Tropical Research Institute.

Mulkey holds a bachelor’s degree in fisheries and wildlife, and a master’s degree in ecology. He earned his doctorate in ecology from the University of Pennsylvania in 1986.

As a scholar of the interdisciplinary literature in climate change and sustainability, Mulkey is internationally known as an articulate and inspiring public communicator of climate change science.

For more information on the event, call 352-672-4327.