Ecologist Jonathan Levine will deliver the 31st annual Odum Lecture at the UGA Odum School of Ecology March 29 at 4 p.m. His talk, which will be followed by a reception, is open free to the public.
Levine studies the community and population ecology of plants using mathematical modeling and field experiments to answer questions about the maintenance of species diversity, the control of plant invasions and plant community response to climate change. His work has included creating models showing how species invasions increase as international trade increases, how plant-soil interactions and competition within a species affect biological invasions and how a changing climate affects coexistence in various plant communities.
A professor of plant ecology in the Institute of Integrative Biology, part of the Department of Environmental Systems Science at ETH Zurich, Levine is a recipient of the David and Lucile Packard Foundation Fellowship for Science and Engineering, the Young Investigators Prize from the Society of American Naturalists and the George Mercer Younger Investigator Award from the Ecological Society of America. He is the author or co-author of more than 60 scientific papers published in peer reviewed journals including Science, Nature, Ecology, PNAS, American Naturalist and PLOS One.
The annual Eugene P. Odum Lecture Series features speakers who address significant ecological questions in broad social and intellectual contexts.