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Roy F. Weston Distinguished
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2008 SpeakersKirk Smith, Professor of Global Environmental Health, University of California Berkeley Dr. Kirk Smith, a Professor of Global and Environmental Health at the University of California, Berkeley, is a top expert in the field of environmental health issues related to economic development. Much of his research focuses on the health and climate changing effects of air pollution from biomass fuels with ongoing projects in China, India, Nepal, and Guatemala. Dr. Smith serves on the advisory boards of several organizations, both national and international. Among them are the Global Action Plan for Pneumonia, the Global Energy Assessment, and the WHO Air Quality Guidelines. In 1997, Dr. Smith was awarded one of the highest honors given to US scientists when he was elected to the US National Academy of Sciences. He was also a contributing author to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007. Lisa Curran, Professor of Tropical Resources, Yale University Dr. Lisa Curran is a world leader in the field of tropical forest studies. She is involved in numerous research projects throughout the world, including Asia, Indonesia, and Latin America. Her research is vital to understanding the role of tropical forest destruction in global climate change. Dr. Curran works closely with leaders in developing countries to help create policies that promote equitable and sustainable resource use and conservation. Dr. Curran is currently a professor of Tropical Resources at Yale. She served as a Visiting Research Fellow at the East-West Center's Ecosystem & Governance Program, Aldo Leopold Leadership Fellow, and Marie Tharp Fellow at the Earth Institute of Columbia University. Currently, she is a MacArthur Fellow, External Faculty at the Santa Fe Institute, and serves on NASA's Earth Science Advisory Board, as well as governing boards of the Tropical Forest Foundation, the Forest Dialogue and Forest Integrity Network under Transparency International's Corruption Watch Program.
2007 SpeakerJohn Rowe, Chairman and CEO of Exelon Corporation |
2006 Speakers
Dr. Rosamond Naylor, "Food Security and the Environment"
Associate Professor of Economics
Director, Program on Food Security and the Environment
Wrigley Senior Fellow in Environmental Science and Policy
Stanford University
read the press release
listen to the talk (Quicktime)
Prof. Kerry Emanuel, “Is Global Warming Affecting Hurricanes?”
Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Science
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
read the press release
download the PPT presentation
listen to the talk (Quicktime)
Dr. Jonathan Koomey, "Creating the Future: Cost effective options for minimizing climate change and oil dependence"
Staff Scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab and Consulting Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering Dept, Stanford University
• View the Lecture and Slidshow Online (courtesy of the UW Engineering MediaSite).
listen to the talk (Quicktime)
Andy Revkin, "The Daily Planet: A Journalist's Search for Sustainability, from the Amazon to the Arctic"
Science Writer for the New York Times
listen to the talk (Quicktime)
Jeffrey Christian, "Zero Energy Houses: A Promising Grand Challenge for the U.S."
Director of the Building Technology Center, Oak Ridge National Laboratory
• press release
• SAGE Graduate student David Zaks interviews Jeffrey Christian for WorldChanging.com
2005 Speakers
Rita Colwell, "Water Pollution and Human Health"
Chair at Canon US Life Sciences, Incorporated and Distinguished University Professor at the University of Maryland at College Park and Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health
Ken Cassman, "Agricultural Production and Long-term Sustainability of Soil and Water Resources"
Professor of Agronomy, Department of Agronomy and Horticulture, University of Nebraska
Eric Lambin, "Impact of Land Use Policies on Changes in Masai Mara Wildlife (Kenya): Analyzing Coupled Human-Environment Systems"
Professor, Department of Geography, University of Louvain, Belgium
UW Lambin News release
Pat Kinney, "Climate Change, Air Quality, and Public Health"
Associate Professor of Environmental Health Sciences, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University
Steven Wofsy, "Emergent Properties of Ecosystems: from Individual Tree to Continental Scales"
Abbott Lawrence Rotch Professor of Atmospheric and Environmental Chemistry, Harvard University
Roy Weston – Sustainability Visionary, 1911-2007
Roy F. Weston, a major benefactor of the Nelson Institute and an original member of its Board of Visitors, died Saturday, August 18th, at his home in Pennsylvania. He was 96.
Five years ago, Weston gave $1 million to the Institute to help create two annual graduate fellowships, establish the Roy F. Weston Distinguished Global Sustainability Lecture Series, and support other sustainability initiatives. This gift established the Roy Weston Program in Sustainability, which is operated by the Institute's Center for Sustainability and the Global Environment (SAGE), in collaboration with the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE). He also set aside another $1 million in a trust fund earmarked for the Institute as part of his and his wife Madeleen’s estate.
A Wisconsin native and 1933 UW-Madison civil engineering graduate, Weston founded Weston Solutions, Inc., a leading international environmental and redevelopment consulting firm. He led the company for more than three decades until his retirement in 1991. (Read the company’s obituary.)
Described by his colleagues as a visionary, Weston was an early champion of the idea that environmental problems are complex and that their resolution requires multidisciplinary, rather than piecemeal, approaches. He also maintained that prevention of environmental problems is preferable to abatement or remediation and insisted that his company’s engineers place the public good ahead of the wishes of individual clients.
Weston was among the first engineers to use environmental sustainability as a central criterion to evaluate human activity. He also became a strong advocate for environmental thought and action from a global perspective.
"Mr. Weston was an intellectual giant, and saw the need for sustainability decades before others. His vision, leadership and generosity have made a profound impact on the University and the world.", says Jonathan Foley, Director of SAGE. "Thanks his support, we will be continuing to build upon Mr. Weston's vision for years to come."
Weston’s many awards and citations included an honorary doctorate from UW-Madison in 1995.