Speaker: Professor Jonathan Foley, Institute on the Environment, University of Minnesota

Event: 12th Annual Henry W. Kendall Memorial Lecture

In his talk, Foley will discuss how increasing population and wealth, along with changing patterns of diet and consumption, are placing unprecedented demands on the world's agriculture and natural resources. He will propose possible solutions to this dilemma, which together could double the world’s food production while greatly reducing the environmental impacts of agriculture. 

In addition to leading the IoE, Foley is a professor and McKnight Presidential Chair in the Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior. His research focuses on complex global environment systems and their interactions with human societies. Before joining the University of Minnesota in 2008, he spent 15 years on the faculty of the University of Wisconsin, where he founded the Center for Sustainability and the Global Environment.

The Henry W. Kendall Memorial Lecture Series honors the memory of Professor Henry Kendall (1926-1999), a 1990 Nobel Laureate, a longtime member of MIT’s physics faculty, and an ardent environmentalist. A founding member and chair of the Union of Concerned Scientists, he played a leading role in organizing scientific community statements on global problems, including the World Scientists’ Warning to Humanity in 1992 and the Call for Action at the Kyoto Climate Summit in 1997.