Dr. Elena Bennett is Professor and CRC (Tier 1) Chair in Sustainability Science at McGill University. Dr. Bennett will present the 2022 Hopke Distinguished Lecture, on March 23 at 12:00 p.m. in room CAMP 177 on the Clarkson University Collins Hill Campus. Her lecture is titled “understanding relationships between people and nature.” Dr. Bennett will present a novel framework to quantitatively link landscape planning, biodiversity, the provision of multiple ecosystem services, and human well-being, which she and her research team tested in an agricultural landscape in southern Quebec. This framework shows how landscape configuration, and especially the connectivity of forest patches in the agricultural and peri-urban milieu, affects biodiversity and the provision of several ecosystem services.
Dr. Bennett is an internationally recognized scholar of ecosystem services in multi-functional landscapes. She is the leader of NSERC ResNet, a Canada-wide network of interdisciplinary scholars working to improve environmental decision-making. Her most recent work, focused on the ‘seeds’ of a “good Anthropocene”, was presented at the World Economic Forum and TEDx and has been viewed over 25,000 times. Dr. Bennett was a Leopold Leadership Fellow (2012), and a Trottier Public Policy Professor (2013-2014).
The Hopke Lecture is supported by the Philip K. and Eleanor F. Hopke Endowment for the Institute for a Sustainable Environment (ISE). Philip and Eleanor Hopke have been contributors to the Clarkson community since 1989. The goal of the Hopke Lecture series is to continue Dr. Hopke’s tradition of making significant technical contributions to the fields of air quality, aerosol science, and atmospheric chemistry, as well as use scientific and technical knowledge to guide public policy decisions at the highest levels of government. In honor of Professor Hopke’s work, the annual Hopke Lecture features distinguished researchers who have significantly contributed to our understanding of the environment and have used this scientific understanding to guide policy. The Hopke Lecture series intends to stimulate interest in environmental research and motivate the participation of scientists in public policy.
