Edward O. Wilson lecture series starts

Edward O. Wilson, the outstanding American evolutionary biologist and "father of sociobiology", is the subject of an annual lecture series on biodiversity, which starts at the university on Wednesday, 30 May. Renowned biologist Prof. Dr Georgina Mace will kick off the series.

Mace, Professor of Conservation at Imperial College London (UK), will give the lecture "Biodiversity: why should we care in a resource-hungry world?" on Wednesday, 30 May at 8 p.m. at the University of Oldenburg (Haarentor campus, lecture theatre centre A14, lecture theatre 1). (Biodiversity: why should we care in a resource-hungry world?)". She will report on how the protection of nature and the environment can be guaranteed in times of increasing demand for resources. She addresses the different perspectives of land planners, national resource managers, environmentalists and biologists and discusses how the different approaches can be combined to expand the protection of ecosystems.

Mace's research focus is on the development and changes to ecosystems caused by the loss of biodiversity. The biologist played a leading role in developing the catalogue of criteria for the Red List of Threatened Species for the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). She is also in charge of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, a large-scale United Nations (UN) study on ecosystem services. She is a member of the Royal Society of London and was honoured with the "Commander of the British Empire" award. In 2007, she was awarded the International Cosmos Prize, worth 40 million Japanese yen, for her research.

"Edward O. Wilson is one of the greatest living biologists. In his honour, the University of Oldenburg is launching the Edward O. Wilson Lecture Series on Biodiversity, which will focus on the latest developments in this field. I am delighted that Prof Dr Georgina Mace is opening this series. She is one of the most renowned biologists, her research on biodiversity is groundbreaking and highly regarded internationally," explains Prof. Dr. Olaf Bininda-Emonds, Professor of Molecular Systematics, and organiser and Scientific Director of the E.O. Wilson Lecture on Biodiversity.

Prof. Dr. Katharina Al-Shamery, Vice President for Research at the University of Oldenburg, will open the lecture series with a welcoming address.