A sustainable society is one that satisfies its needs without jeopardizing the prospects of future generations.¹

Science, the arts and education all have important roles to play as we move along theroadto achieving a more sustainable balance with nature. In my talk, I hopeto set the table for the distinguished scientists and humanists who followme, recalling some highlightsof my personal journey in all three of theseareas. It seems that this is a journey in which I am invariably trying torediscover, through art or science or education, those two or three greatand simple images in whose presence my heart first opened.

¹ Brown,L., C. Flavin and S. Postel. 1990. Picturing a sustainable society. In L. Brown et. al., State of the World: 1990. W.W. Norton.

Link to Seminar Transcript

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Biography:

Robert Francis has been a Professor in the School of Aquatic and Fisheries Sciences at the Universityof Washington since 1985. Working with graduate students and ahost of academic and agency collaborators, Francis is interested in what forces thevariablity in annual production of commercially important species. Heis particularlyinterested in decadal to centennial cycles in the composition and dynamicsof large marine ecosystems, and whether these changes are related to shiftsin atmospheric and oceanographic regimes.

One of hiscurrentresearch projects is an attempt to determine the fundamental timescalesandrates of change of important components of coastal marine ecosystems oftheNE Pacific rim over the past five centuries. The methodology is to developchronologiesof abundance of pelagic fish populations by extracting biologicalmaterial, with particular emphasis on fish scales, from sediment cores takenat anaerobic embayments of the NE Pacific.

Link to Seminar Readings

• Williams,TerryTempest. 1994. An Unspoken Hunger:Stories from the Field.   Vintage Books,NewYork. pp. 61-65.

• Orr, David W. 1992. Ecological Literacy:Education and Transition to a Postmodern World.State University of NewYork Press. pp. 85-95.

• Bottom,Daniel L, Reeves, Gordon H, Brookes,Martha H., (Tech. Coords.)1996. Sustainability issues for resource managers. Gen.Tech. Rep. PNW-GTR-370.Portland,OR: U.S.Dept.of Agriculture,Forest Service, Pacific Northwest ResearchStation.pp.1-3,5-12, 45-53.

• Dayton, Paul K.1998. Reversal of the Burden of Proof in Fisheries Management. Science 279: 821-822.

• Pauly, Daniel,Christensen,Villy, Dalsgaard, Johanne, Froese, Rainer,Torres,Francisco Jr.1998. Fishing Down Marine Food Webs. Science Vol. 279:860-863.

Robert Francis Personal Link
 
 

Last modified 12/9/01         

Please sumbit any questions or comments to: susfish@u.washington.edu