A panel of leading urban ecologists and conservationists will discuss how cities are advancing climate solutions rooted in plants that benefits both people and nature. The panel discussion will be moderated by Dr. Eric Sanderson, NYBG’s Vice President for Urban Conservation.
Featuring:
Dr. Karen Seto, Frederick C. Hixon Professor of Geography and Urbanization Science, Yale University; Director of the Hixon Center for Urban Sustainability; Co-Director of the Yale Center for Geospatial Solutions
Karen Seto is a leading global expert on urbanization and its impacts on climate change, biodiversity, and food systems. A geographer and urbanization scientist, she integrates satellite remote sensing, field interviews, and modeling to study four core research areas: measuring and characterizing urbanization; understanding the drivers of urban expansion; forecasting future growth; and assessing environmental consequences. She pioneered methods to reconstruct historical urban land use and produced the first global forecasts of urban land expansion. Professor Seto serves on numerous national and international scientific bodies. She is Chair of the Office of International Networks, Cooperation and Security of U.S. National Academies and was Co-Chair of the U.S. National Academies Climate Security Roundtable. She was a Coordinating Lead Author for the IPCC Fifth (2014) and Sixth (2022) Assessment Reports, co-leading chapters on urban climate mitigation. Committed to public engagement, she was Executive Producer of 10,000 Shovels: Rapid Urban Growth in China and co-authored City Unseen. Her honors include election to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and others. She is the recipient of the 2026 Benjamin Franklin Medal in Earth and Environmental Sciences. She holds a Ph.D. in Geography from Boston University.
Dr. Diane Pataki, Chief Scientist and Vice President for Science, National Wildlife Federation
Dr. Diane Pataki is trained as an ecologist, and her work has spanned the impacts of climate change on ecosystems; the role of human and biological processes in air and water resources; and interactions between urbanization, landscape management, and biodiversity. Her recent projects have been focused on nature-based solutions for sustainable cities and communities. Pataki has a B.A. in environmental science from Barnard College and an M.S. and Ph.D. in ecology from Duke University. She is the former Director of the Arizona State University (ASU) School of Sustainability, the founder and former Chief Strategy Officer of the ASU-led and National Science Foundation-supported Southwest Sustainability Innovation Engine (SWSIE), and a Foundation Professor in the ASU School of Sustainability. She has also served as the Associate Vice President for Research, Associate Dean, and Professor of Biology at the University of Utah, and the founding director of the University of California, Irvine Center for Environmental Biology and the Steele-Burnand Anza Borrego Desert Research Center. Dr. Pataki is located on the Tempe, Arizona campus of Arizona State University, and also spends time in the canyon country of eastern Utah. In her spare time, she can be found hiking and exploring the beautiful national forests and public lands of the Southwest.
Dr. Steward T.A. Pickett, Distinguished Senior Scientist, Emeritus, from the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies
Steward T.A. Pickett is an ecologist internationally known for contributions to urban ecology, social-ecological systems theory, and the study of natural disturbance and recovery. He was born and raised in Louisville, KY. He received a B.S. in Botany from the University of Kentucky in 1972, and a Ph.D. in Botany from the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana in 1977. He served on the faculty of Rutgers University until 1986, after which he moved to Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies in Millbrook, NY, where he is now Distinguished Senior Scientist, Emeritus. He was founding director of the Baltimore Ecosystem Study, a pioneering interdisciplinary program encompassing research, community engagement, and education in a complex social-ecological metropolitan system. He has authored or edited more than a dozen books, and over 300 research publications. He has served as President of the Ecological Society of America, and on the boards of the American Institute of Biological Sciences, Defenders of Wildlife, City as Living Laboratory, and the McHarg Center for Ecological Urbanism. He is a recipient of the Botanical Society of America’s Centennial Award, a Fellow of the Ecological Society of America, and its 2021 Eminent Ecologist; he was one of three recipients of the BBVP Foundation 2022 Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Ecology and Conservation. He is an elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences. His research has been applied in the contexts of ecology in urban design and planning, environmental justice, and landscape-based conservation.
Dr. Eric W. Sanderson, Moderator, Vice President for Urban Conservation and Director of the Center for Conservation and Restoration Ecology, NYBG
Eric Sanderson holds a Ph.D. from the University of California, Davis, and has spent more than 25 years working in conservation, with a particular focus on the historical and contemporary ecology of New York City. His work combines landscape and ecosystem ecology, conservation biology, historical ecology, urban conservation, climate resilience, and ecological democracy with advanced tools in visualization, geospatial analysis, and cloud computing. Sanderson is the best-selling author of Mannahatta: A Natural History of New York City, author of Terra Nova: The New World After Oil, Cars, and Suburbs, and editor of three additional books. His current projects include The Welikia Project, Visionmaker 2.0, and New York City Blue Zones, which explore how ecological history, future scenario-building, and public engagement can help shape a more resilient and nature-rich city. Across his research, writing, and public-facing work, Sanderson advances the belief that the best path forward is one that fosters ecological literacy and democracy, artistic and scientific excellence, and the deep love many people have for the nature of planet Earth.
Location Ross Hall