Conservation biologist to lead 2009 MSU Carlton lecture

Contact: Sammy McDavid

STARKVILLE, Miss.--The University of Maine's Libra Professor of Conservation Biology will be featured Tuesday [April 14] as part of the university's ongoing Carlton N. Owen Lecture Series.

Malcolm L. Hunter Jr. is recognized internationally for his primary research on forest ecosystems and the maintenance of their biological diversity. To begin at 2 p.m. in the Tully Auditorium of Thompson Hall, his public presentation will examine using ecosystem processes as models for managing natural resources.

A reception will follow in the same location.

Hunter, also a Pew Conservation Fellow, is a member of the science review team for The Nature Conservancy and chair of the Environmental Advisory Committee for the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation.

He is a former president of the Society of Conservation Biology and served on the Biodiversity Task Force of the President's Council on Environmental Quality.

A professor of conservation biology and wildlife ecology at Maine for 31 years, Hunter is the author of numerous books on biological diversity and conservation biology. He holds a bachelor's degree in wildlife science from Maine.

While completing a doctorate in zoology from the Edward Grey Institute of Field Ornithology at Oxford University, he was a Rhodes Scholar and received research funding from the National Geographic Society.

The Owen Lecture Series was established in the College of Forest Resources in 1992 by the Greenville, S.C., resident and 1974 MSU graduate for whom it is named. The program focuses on forest resource stewardship issues.

For more information on the 2009 Owens' Lecture, contact Laura Andrews at 662-325-6694 or landrews@cfr.msstate.edu.

For more information about Mississippi State University, see http://www.msstate.edu/.