STEPS Distinguished Visitor Series

Each year the Institute invites a distinguished environmental researcher or policy maker to spend several days at UCSC. The purpose of these visits is to create a forum in which UCSC researchers, including faculty and students, can explore novel ways of building interdisciplinary collaborations in environmental research and deal more effectively with major environmental issues.

Panel on the Diversification of Life

Frans Lanting is one of the most widely published wildlife photographers in the world. His work has captured the diversity of life in some of the most memorable photographic images ever produced. On June 4, 2003, Frans Lanting presented a series of new images that will form the basis for a new book that tracks the diversification of life from its origins forward to now. In conjunction with the lecture, the STEPS Institute organized a panel of UCSC faculty whose research probes both the diversification and diversity of life.

These presentations included talks by:

David Deamer (Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry) whose work is on the earliest forms of life.

Lynda Goff (Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and Vice Provost and Dean for Undergraduate Education) who studies the role of symbiosis in the diversification of life.

Paul Koch (Professor of Earth Sciences) who explores the historical role of climate change on the communities of animals and plants.

Pete Raimondi (Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology) whose research is on large-scale patterns in the organization of marine biodiversity in coastal environments.

Fred Keeley Lecture in Environmental Policy
UCSC has recently established a major annual lecture in environmental policy that will be coordinated in part each year through the STEPS Institute.The series is named in honor of Fred Keeley, who for many years has contributed to shaping environmental policy in California, both in the State Assembly and as a civic leader.

The first Keeley Lecture will take place in 2004.