August 24, 2012
A new Agricultural Research Division seminar series hopes to build big ideas and collaborations among UNL faculty members.
Big Idea Seminars begin in September and will cover a broad area of research topics. The series, in the Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources at UNL, is meant to bring together collaborations between faculty members across all of UNL, said David Jackson, associate dean of the ARD.
The seminars will get people learning and talking about different issues and hopefully generating new ideas, learning new things, and coming up with new ideas for working together, Jackson said.
"This is more than just a seminar; this is team building," said Larkin Powell, professor in the School of Natural Resources. "This will really provide faculty a moment to just talk, work together and in the end come up with new research projects and land bigger grants."
The theme for the first five seminars is "Scenery as a Natural Resource" and was organized by Richard Sutton, professor in agronomy and horticulture at UNL.
This seminar series will help raise awareness of the visual landscape for the academic research community and as a resource affecting the quality of life for all Nebraskans.
All seminars, except for the Nov. 30 one, will be at the Nebraska East Union on UNL's East Campus at 4 p.m. The Nov. 30 seminar will be at the Mary Riepma Ross Media Arts Center, 313 N. 13th at 4:30 p.m.
Dates, speakers, times and topics include:
- Sept. 12, "Visual Resources and Scenic Landscapes" with James Palmer, senior principal at Scenic Quality Consultants since 2007 and professor emeritus at SUNY, College of Environmental Science and Forestry
- Oct. 10, "Visual Impacts of Windpower on Communities" with Roopali Phadke, associate professor, environmental studies, Macalester College, St. Paul, Minn.
- Oct. 24, "Tourism, Scenery and Open Landscapes" with Steve Burr, associate professor of recreation resources management, director of the Institute for Outdoor Recreation and Tourism and extension specialist in the Department of Environment and Society in the College of Natural Resources at Utah State University
- Nov. 14, "Visual Resources and Scenery Management on Public Lands" with John McCarty, chief landscape architect, U.S. Department of Interior's Bureau of Land Management
- Nov. 30, "Scenic Manifesto for Communities" with Ronald Lee Fleming, FAICP
A second set of Big Idea Seminars, with the theme of "Plant Recognition and Identification Technology," will begin in November and is being organized by Steve Young, assistant professor at UNL's West Central Research and Extension Center at North Platte.
Future topics could include any area of research at UNL.
For more information visit the ARD's Big Idea Seminars website.
