Satellites & Butterflies: Climate Change and Species Conservation in North America

Date/Time:	Tuesday, 19 Nov 2013 at 8:00 pm
Location:	Great Hall, Memorial Union
Cost:	Free
Contact:
Phone:	515-294-9934
Channel:	Lecture Series
Categories:	Lectures Live Green Student activities
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Biologist Jeremy Kerr studies how biodiversity is changing as a consequence of climate change. His University of Ottawa lab recently launched the eButterfly Project, allowing scientists and the public across North America to monitor the numbers and migratory paths of butterflies, which are often viewed as indicators of environmental change. Paul L. Errington Memorial Lecture

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Jeremy Kerr's research program has had practical applications for continental-scale species- and habitat-conservation efforts. It has also been used to predict how changing environmental conditions affect the abundance of disease-carrying species and the prevalence of vector-borne illnesses like malaria. He teaches lecture and field courses in aspects of ecology in Ottawa and Tanzania.

Kerr has helped organize and develop science consensus statements on requirements for effective endangered species legislation in Ontario and the need for boreal wilderness conservation. Such policy efforts have been accompanied by substantial media communications in Canada and the US. He was awarded an Early Researcher Award in 2007 and the Young Researcher of the Year award at University of Ottawa in 2010.

Kerr completed his B.Sc. in Biology at the University of Ottawa, completing a thesis testing different human causes of extinction risk around the world. He went on to graduate work at York University, where he won the Governor General's Gold Medal. He accepted a postdoctoral position with Professor Lord Robert May in Zoology at Oxford, also working with Sir Richard Southwood. He joined the Canada Centre for Remote Sensing in September 2000 and moved to the University of Ottawa in 2002.