The KBS Eminent Ecologist Seminar brings well-known ecologists and evolutionary biologists to KBS each summer to interact with KBS faculty, students and staff for week-long visits.
Graduate students can register for this 1 or 2-credit seminar course in summer 2025. The course is cross-listed IBIO/PLB/CSS 891; with IBIO as the primary/lead department. Please search IBIO 891 for the correct course listing to enroll. Enrolled students are expected to actively participate in all aspects of the ‘EE’ course for one or both speaker visits – this includes scheduling meetings with our speakers, reading papers sent as background for the seminars, attending the seminars, and participation in the scheduled paper discussions. The course is graded pass/fail and attendance at the seminars and attendance/participation with the speakers during paper discussions are the primary ways for assessing participation. If you can fulfill all requirements for both visitors, register for two credits. If you can fulfill all requirements for only 1 visitor, register for 1 credit.
The 2025 speakers are Dr. Jonathan Levine and Dr. Laura Dee. See each speaker’s schedule below.
The program began in Spring/Summer 1983 and has welcomed more than eighty distinguished speakers from around the globe to KBS (Eminent Ecologists 1983-2024).
Seminars are held in the auditorium in the Academic Building of KBS and begin at 5 p.m on Monday and Wednesday of the speaker’s visit. Seminars are streamed live and recorded. The live stream is available to MSU participants via Zoom Online Meeting software: Seminar Stream Information.
Please contact the course instructor, Dr. Nick Haddad (haddadn3@msu.edu) with any questions about the program.
Eminent Ecologists for 2025
Jonathan Levine, PhD
Website: https://levine.princeton.edu/
Dates: June 2-6, 2025
Seminars:
Monday June 2 @ 5 pm, KBS Auditorium:
Biodiversity impacts of climate change and land-based climate mitigation
Wednesday June 4 @ 5 pm, KBS Auditorium:
Higher order interactions and the maintenance of plant diversity
Contact Dr. Nick Haddad (haddadn3@msu.edu) and Sarah Roy (roysara1@msu.edu) for questions about Dr. Levine’s visit or seminars.
Laura Dee, PhD
Associate Professor, University of Colorado Boulder
Global change ecology, Community Ecology, and Conservation Science
Website: https://www.lauraedee.com/home
Dates: July 6-11, 2025
Seminars:
Monday, July 7 @ 5 p.m, KBS Auditorium:
The consequences of climate and biodiversity change for ecosystem and people
Wednesday, July 9 @ 5 p.m, KBS Auditorium:
Scaling ecological understandings and conservation evidence with causal inference
Contact Dr. Nick Haddad (haddadn3@msu.edu) and Sarah Roy (roysara1@msu.edu) for questions about Dr. Dee’s visit or seminars.
Past speakers
* Asterisk denotes speakers who have participated in more than one summer.
2025
Jonathan Levine, Princeton University
Laura Dee, University of Colorado-Boulder
2024
Ximena Bernal, Purdue University
Haldre Rogers, Virginia Tech
2023
Aaron Ellison, Harvard Forest *
Serita Frey, University of New Hampshire
2022
Amy Angert, University of British Columbia
Mark Bradford, Yale University
2021
Francesca Cotrufo and Keith Paustain, Colorado State University
Taylor Ricketts, University of Vermont
2019
Diana Wall, Colorado State University
Kelly Zamudio, Cornell University
Elizabeth Borer and Eric Seabloom, University of Minnesota
2018
Susan Alberts, Duke University
Bob Holt, University of Florida *
Josh Schimel, University of California – Santa Barbara
2017
Judith Bronstein, University of Arizona *
Goggy Davidowitz, University of Arizona
Jacques Finlay, University of Minnesota
Sarah Hobbie, University of Minnesota
2016
Alan Hastings, University of California – Davis
Hopi Hoekstra, Harvard University
2015
Peter Adler, Utah State University
Nancy Grimm, Arizona State University
Nelson Hairston Jr., Cornell University
2014
Andy Gonzalez, McGill University
Peter Groffman Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies
Ken Whitney, The University of New Mexico
Jennifer Rudgers, The University of New Mexico
2013
Richard Gomulkiewicz, Washington State University
Sebastian Diehl, Umeå University
Mike Ryan, University of Texas at Austin
2012
Joel Brown, University of Illinois at Chicago
Alison Power, Cornell University
Alex Flecker, Cornell University
2011
John Fryxell, University of Guelph
Mathew Leibold, UT Austin
Mark McPeek, Dartmouth College *
2010
Brian Enquist, University of Arizona
Andy Sih, UC-Davis *
Terry Chapin, University of Alaska *
2009
Jim Elser, Arizona State University
Warren Abrahamson, Bucknell University
Curt Lively and Linda Delph, Indiana University
2008
Nancy Collins Johnson, Northern Arizona
Yoh Iwasa Kyushu, University of Japan
Sharon Strauss, UC-Davis
2007
Mary Firestone, UC-Berkeley *
Judy Bronstein, University of Arizona *
Carla D’Antonio, UC-Santa Barbara
2006
Scott Forbes, University of Winnepig
Anurag Agarwal, Cornell University
2005
John Maron, University of Montana
Butch Brodie, Indiana University
Mike Pace, Institute of Ecosystem Studies
2004
Bill Schlesinger, Duke University *
Aaron Ellision, Harvard Forest *
Trevor Price, University of Chicago
2003
Steve Arnold, University of Chicago
Mike Vanni, Miami of Ohio
Peter Abrams, University of Toronto
2002
Mary Power, UC-Berkeley *
Ray Huey, University of Washington
Sara Via, Cornell University
2001
Lisa Graumlich, Montana State University
Bill Reiners, University of Wyoming
Joan Roughgarden, Stanford University
2000
Shahid Naeem, University of Washington-Columbia
Bob Howarth, Cornell University
Mark McPeek, Dartmouth College *
1999
Doug Schemske, University of Washington *
Mark Hunter, University of Georgia
Bob Ricklefs, University of Missouri-St Louis
1998
Steve Stearns, University of Basel, Switzerland
Gary Polis Vanderbilt, UC-Davis
Susan Harrison, UC-Davis
Tom Mitchell-Olds, Max Planck Institute, Germany
1997
Mary Firestone, UC-Berkeley *
Dolph Schluter, University of British Columbia *
1996
Tony Ives, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Andy Sih, University of Kentucky *
1995
Mike Lynch, University of Oregon
Bob Holt, University of Kansas *
Si Levin, Princeton University *
1994
Terry Chapin, UC-Berkeley *
1993
Bobby Peckarsky, Cornell University
May Berenbaum, University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign
Joe Travis, Florida State University
1992
Mike Rosenzweig, University of Arizona
Annie Schmidt, Brown University
Bill Schlesinger, Duke University *
1991
Russ Schmitt and Sally Holbrook, UC-Santa Barbara
Jim Brown and Astrid Kodric-Brown, University of New Mexico
Peter Vitousek and Pam Matson, Stanford University
John Endler, UC-Santa Barbara *
1990
Dolph Schluter, University of British Columbia
Mark Hixon, Oregon State University
Dan Simberloff, Florida State University
1989
Nelson Hairston Jr., Cornell University
Martyn Caldwell, Utah State University
Doug Futuyma, SUNY-Stony Brook
Monty Slatkin, UC-Berkeley
1988
Norm Ellstrand, UC-Riverside
Bob Holt, University of Kansas *
Nick Waser and Mary Price, UC-Riverside
1987
Norma Fowler, University of Texas
Joe Travis, Florida State University
Steve Hubbell, University of Georgia
Mary Power, UC-Berkeley *
1986
Henry Wilbur, Duke University/University of Virginia
Janis Antonovics, Duke University
1985
Bill Neill, University of British Columbia
Rob Colwell, University of Connecticut
Hal Caswell, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
1984
John Endler, UC-Santa Barbara *
Bob Paine, University of Washington
Simon Levin, Cornell University *
1983
Doug Schemske, University of Chicago *
Ron Pulliam, SUNY-Albany/University of Georgia
Dave Tilman, University of Minnesota
The following speakers also visited KBS as part of the Eminent Ecologists program, but our records are incomplete, and we are uncertain as to the year of their visit. If you have more information about this, please email communityrelations@kbs.msu.edu.
Jerry Franklin
Jim Hamrick
Peter Kareiva
Mark Kirkpatrick
Lennert Persson
Loren Reisberg
Dan Simberloff
David Tilman
Mike Wade
Will Wilson
A legacy of conservation; a commitment to sustainability.
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