Ohio Northern University will host a lecture by Dr. James Estes, professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of California at Santa Cruz and research biologist at the Institute for Marine Sciences, in the Freed Center for the Performing Arts on Monday, March 14, at 7:30 p.m. This lecture is free and open to the public.
Estes’ presentation, titled “Apex Predators and Nature’s Functions,” is part of the Keiser Distinguished Lectureship in Life Sciences program, named in honor of ONU alumnus Terry D. Keiser, professor of biological sciences and director of University sustainability.
The Keiser Distinguished Lectureship in Life Sciences brings nationally and internationally prominent life sciences scholars to ONU’s campus each year to lecture and interact with students. The Keiser Lectureship was the first program of its kind at Ohio Northern.
Estes will also be speaking on “Sea Otters and Kelp Forests: Approaches and Perspective Tuesday, March 15, in the Evans-Robertson Building (room 122) at 7 p.m.
Estes is an internationally known expert on marine mammals and a specialist in the critical role of apex (top-level) predators in the marine environment. After growing up in southern California, Estes received a bachelor’s degree from the University of Minnesota in 1967 and doctorate from the University of Arizona in 1974.
He subsequently worked as a research scientist for the Fish and Wildlife Service and the U.S. Geological Survey. After retiring from federal service in 2007, Estes took a part-time faculty position with the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of California at Santa Cruz, where he currently resides.
Estes has conducted field research in Alaska, California, Canada, Mexico, New Zealand and Russia. He has published more than 170 scientific articles along with several books and monographs. He has served on the editorial boards for a variety of professional societies.
Estes’ most recent book, published by Island Press in 2010, is a co-edited volume with John Terborgh titled “Trophic Cascades: Predators, Prey and the Changing Dynamics of Nature.” His memoir, “Serendipity: Sea Otters, Kelp Forests, and a Quest for Understanding Nature,” will be published in early 2016. Estes is a Pew fellow in marine conservation, a fellow of the California Academy of Sciences and a member of the National Academy of Sciences.
He received the Western Society of Naturalists’ Lifetime Achievement Award in 2011 and the American Society of Mammalogists’ C. Hart Merriam Award in 2012.
