Speaker: Samantha Hopkins, PhD

Date & Time: April 14, 2023 @ 1:00 PM ET // 10:00 AM PT

Topic of Discussion: Looking back to look forward: Conservation Paleobiology and the Value of Earth History in Understanding its Future Talk Overview: We live in an era of profound changes in climate and habitats driven by human activity. While these changes are in many ways unprecedented, the fossil record offers a line of evidence to inform our thinking about what we can expect and how we might mitigate human influence on ecosystems. At the same time, this effort offers a case study in the value of interdisciplinarity in solving society’s wicked problems.

Speaker Information: Samantha Hopkins is an academic expert in mass extinction, paleontology, climate change and evolution. At the University of Oregon, she is Department Head of Earth Sciences. Samantha studies the evolution of ecology in mammals, primarily fossil mammals. She is also interested in the role climate change and geologic activity play in mammal evolution. Her research has explored the evolution of body size, of diet, and of burrowing habits in extinct mammals from the last 30 million years in western North America and central Asia. Samantha Hopkins attended the National Youth Science Camp (NYSCamp) in 1994 as a delegate representing Tennessee and was a staph member in 1996-97.