EAST LANSING, Mich. --- Elinor Ostrom, who in 2009 became the first woman to receive the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, will present the Rachel Carson Distinguished Lecture Dec. 10.
Free and open to the public, the 10:30 a.m. event will be held in the Lincoln Room of the Kellogg Hotel and Conference Center on the Michigan State University campus.
Recognized around the world for her groundbreaking research, teaching and scholarship on the complexity of human social and economic behavior, Ostrom is the Arthur F. Bentley Professor of Political Science and senior research director of the Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis at Indiana University.
"Elinor Ostrom is one of the world's leading scholars on economic governance, especially how common resources such as forests and water are managed," said Jianguo "Jack" Liu, MSU University Distinguished Professor of fisheries and wildlife, who holds the Rachel Carson Chair in Sustainability. "Her pioneering work has shown that when these common properties are managed by users, the outcomes are better than what's predicted by standard theories."
Liu is known around the world for his work on environmental sustainability and complex relationship between human and natural systems. He is the lead investigator of the International Network of Research on Coupled Human and Natural Systems, or CHANS-Net, funded by the National Science Foundation.
Ostrom serves on the CHANS-Net Advisory Board and has collaborated with Liu on research, including a study that was published in the journal Science. She also will receive an honorary doctorate of science while on campus.
Ostrom's lecture "Institutional Robustness: How Institutional Arrangements Facilitate or Detract from Efforts to Sustain Ecological Systems" is presented by the MSU Center for Systems Integration and Sustainability, of which Liu is director, and the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife.
The lecture will be followed by a reception.
Ostrom will also address advanced degree candidates 7 p.m. Dec. 10 at the Jack Breslin Student Events Center.
The Rachel Carson Distinguished Lecture Series is a platform for prominent scientists and scholars to share their ideas about global challenges and opportunities with MSU students, faculty, staff and the general public.
Previous speakers have included William Clark, Harvey Brooks Professor of International Science, Public Policy and Human Development at Harvard University; Ruth DeFries, Denning Professor of Sustainable Development at Columbia University; Simon Levin, Moffett Professor of Biology at Princeton University; Billie Lee Turner II, Gilbert F. White Professor of Environment and Society at Arizona State University; and Peter Raven, president of the Missouri Botanical Garden.
The 2010 Rachel Carson Distinguished Lecture also is supported by CHANS-Net, the Office of the President, the Office of the Provost, the Office of the Vice President for Research and Graduate Studies, the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources and the Michigan Agricultural Experiment Station.
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The Center for Systems Integration and Sustainability integrates ecology with socioeconomics, demography and other disciplines to conduct cutting-edge research on ecological sustainability on local, national and global scales.
Michigan State University has been advancing knowledge and transforming lives through innovative teaching, research and outreach for more than 150 years. MSU is known internationally as a major public university with global reach and extraordinary impact. Its 17 degree-granting colleges attract scholars worldwide who are interested in combining education with practical problem solving.