2012 Conference Speakers

Banquet Keynote Speaker, Friday evening, Jan 13

Peter H. Raven, President Emeritus of the Missouri Botanical Garden

Dr. Raven’s presence is made possible by the California Botanical Society  
Peter H. Raven, a leading botanist and advocate of conservation and biodiversity with a notably international outlook, is president emeritus of the Missouri Botanical Garden and George Engelmann Professor of Botany Emeritus at Washington University in St. Louis. In addition, Dr. Raven is a Trustee of the National Geographic Society and Chairman of the Society's Committee for Research and Exploration. For more than 39 years, Dr. Raven headed the Missouri Botanical Garden, an institution he nurtured to become a world-class center for botanical research, education, and horticulture display. During this period, the Garden became a leader in botanical research and conservation in Latin America, Africa, Asia, and North America.

Dr. Raven, a native of San Francisco, got his start in botany in Central California. Early a member of the Student Section at the California Academy of Sciences, he was a protégée of Tom Howell, then curator of the Botany Department, and of Ed Ross, the head of the Entomology Department. He collected plants widely in California and the West, taking part in Sierra Club Base Camp outings at various sites in the Sierra Nevada and the Cascades, from 1950 to 1956. In 1958, he coauthored a flora of San Francisco, with Tom Howell and Peter Rubtzoff. He attended the University of San Francisco from 1953 to 1955 and then the University of California, Berkeley, graduating in 1957 and moving to UCLA, where he obtained his Ph.D. working with Harlan Lewis, in 1960. Inspired by Harlan Lewis, he studied Onagraceae throughout the world. In 1971, he moved to St. Louis following nine years in the Department of Biological Sciences at Stanford University. His 1978 publication with Daniel Axelrod, “Origin and relationships of the California flora,” has been foundational for studies of western plants.

Working closely with Paul Ehrlich through the 1960s, he became an outspoken advocate of the need for conservation throughout the world based on efforts to attain sustainability and social justice everywhere. He was described by TIME magazine as a "Hero for the Planet," and has received numerous national and international prizes, awards, and honorary degrees. including the Friendship Award (for promoting international cooperation) from the government of China in 2010 and the National Medal of Science, the highest award for scientific accomplishment in the United States, in 2001. He served for 12 years as Home Secretary of the National Academy of Sciences, to which he was elected in 1977, and is also member of numerous foreign academies of science, including those of China, Russia, India, Brazil, and the U.K. (the Royal Society. Dr. Raven is Co-editor of the Flora of China, a joint Chinese-American international project that is leading to a contemporary, 50-volume account on all the plants of China scheduled for completion in early 2013.

Dr. Raven has written numerous books and publications, both popular and scientific, including Biology of Plants (co-authored with Ray Evert and Susan Eichhorn, W. H. Freeman and Company/Worth Publishers, New York), the internationally best-selling textbook in botany, of which the seventh edition appeared in 2007; and Environment (co authored with Linda Berg, Wiley & Sons, New York), a leading textbook on the environment, now in its seventh edition (2009).

Plenary speaker - Thursday morning, Jan 12

Dr. Louise Jackson

Professor and Cooperative Extension Specialist
Dept. of Land, Air and Water Resources
University of California at Davis

Stewardship for Biodiversity in Agricultural Landscapes

Dr. Louise Jackson is the John B. Orr Endowed Chair of Environmental Plant Sciences in the Department of Land, Air, and Water Resources at UC Davis.  Her lab-group studies soil and root ecology in agricultural and grassland ecosystems and more broadly landscape-level ecology, e.g., comparison between soils and vegetation along land use gradients. She is an author of over 100 published studies in these areas.  She has a strong interest the role of biodiversity in agricultural systems and the potential for working-landscapes to play a role in the restoration and conservation of native plants and animals.  Dr. Jackson serves as co-chair of  DIVERSITAS agroBIODIVERSITY Network Science Committee and is a board member of the International Centre for Research in Organic Food Systems.

She is a fourth-generation native Californian and attended UC Santa Cruz for her undergraduate studies.  She completed her PhD at the University of Washington.

Plenary speaker - Friday morning, Jan 13

Dr. Bruce M. Pavlik

Professor of Biology, Mills College and Head of Restoration Ecology, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew

Bruce M. Pavlik received his PhD in Botany from the University of California at Davis, working on the physiological ecology of grasses with Professor Michael Barbour. His research has focused on the ecology and physiology of plants native to western North America, including the conservation of endangered species. Ecological restoration has become central to his research program and recent projects have emphasized the design and active management of populations and communities using field-based, experimental approaches. Most of his projects have been associated with grasslands and deserts, but unusual ecosystems (dunes, lakeshores, geothermal springs, serpentinite outcrops, and vernal pools) have received special attention. He has authored or co-authored more than 50 scientific and popular publications, including Oaks of California (1991, Cachuma Press), California's Changing Landscapes (1993, California Native Plant Society), the fifth edition of the Inventory of Rare and Endangered Vascular Plants of California (1994, California Native Plant Society) and The California Deserts: An Ecological Rediscovery (2008, University of California Press). He is currently Head of Restoration Ecology at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (London) and interested in the biology of founding populations, making adaptive management work for resources in situ and developing restoration protocols for complex, species-rich ecosystems.

Closing Plenary, Saturday afternoon, Jan 14

Closing Plenary Facilitator: Dr. David Chipping

Dr. David Chipping was born in Scotland in1943. He has a BA from Cambridge University (1965), came to the U.S. and earned a MS (1967) and PhD (1971) in Geology at Stanford University. He has taught at U.C Davis (1968 -1971), and Cal Poly State University (1971-present), where he is Emeritus Professor of Geology. He joined CNPS in 1987 as Conservation Chair and is currently Chapter President. He has served on the Executive Council of CNPS and was Conservation Director from 1999-2005. He serves on several state CNPS Committees and is Vice President of The Friends of the Carrizo Plain.