2017 Libby Lecture: Uncertainty, Learning, and a Framework for the Integration of Science and Policy

The integration of science and policy will be the focus of the University of Maine’s inaugural Libby Lecture in Resource Policy on Wednesday, April 19.

Byron Kenneth Williams, executive director of The Wildlife Society, will present the 4 p.m. lecture, “Uncertainty, Learning, and a Framework for the Integration of Science and Policy,” in the McIntire Room of the Buchanan Alumni House. A 5 p.m. reception with refreshments will follow the lecture.

Williams joined The Wildlife Society in March 2013 after retiring from the United States Geological Survey (USGS) as chief of the Cooperative Research Units, a natural-resources science program with units at 40 universities in 38 states. He also was co-director of the USGS Science and Decisions Center, where he focused on adaptive management, valuation of ecosystem services, and advancing the use of science in natural-resources decision making.

Williams holds master’s degrees in mathematics from the University of Oklahoma and statistics from Colorado State University, and a Ph.D. in rangeland ecology from Colorado State.

The Libby Lecture in Resource Policy was established at the University of Maine Foundation in 2016 with a gift from Lawrence W. Libby and Lois Murdock Libby. The annual lecture is a collaborative event coordinated by the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and the College of Natural Sciences, Forestry, and Agriculture. It is free and open to the public.

Lawrence and Lois Libby are both alumni of UMaine. They have dedicated their careers to resource economics, public policy, and in improving civil rights and economic conditions for minorities, women and the disabled.

For more information about the lecture or to request a disability accommodation, call 581.1176.