Date:
10/7/2004
Contact: Wendel Sloan at 505.562.2253
Reporter: Dr. David Batten
PORTALES — Dr. Gordon Orians of the University of Washington, Department of Zoology, will speak in the Becky Sharp Auditorium in the College of Business at Eastern New Mexico University at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 14, about "Industrial Development and Alaska's North Slope Environment."
The lecture, which is free and open to the public, is sponsored by Eastern's Chapter of Sigma Xi, the Scientific Research Society and the Sigma Xi Distinguished Lecturer Program.
Dr. Orians recently chaired a National Academy of Sciences/National Research Council committee on "Cumulative Environmental Effects of Oil and Gas Activities on Alaska's North Slope." The report was published by the National Academy Press in 2003. The team's analysis indicates that "the effects are much more complicated than one would surmise from reading accounts in the press."
Now Professor Emeritus of Zoology at the University of Washington, Dr. Orians has focused his work primarily on problems of habitat selection, mate selection and mating systems, selection of prey and foraging patches (foraging theory) and the relationships between ecology and social organization. Primary subjects of study have been blackbirds of the Family Icteridae, a group of birds noted for the diversity of their social systems.
Dr. Orians is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. His honors include the Eminent Ecologists Award from the Ecological Society of America and the Distinguished Service Award from the American Institute of Biological Sciences.
For more information, contact Dr. David Batten at 505.562.2750.