Published: October 17, 2007 12:00 am      

Acid rain expert to give lecture at SUCO

ONEONTA _ An expert on the issue of acid rain will present an annual environmental lecture the annual at the State University College at Oneonta at 8 p.m. Thursday in the Hunt Union Ballroom on campus.

Dr. Gene Likens, president and director of the Institute for Ecosystems Studies in Millbrook, will speak on the topic of "Acid Rain: An Unfinished Environmental Problem."

Admission to the Cornell-Gladstone-Hanlon-Kaufmann Lecture on Environmental Education and Communication is free.

Likens is the co-founder of the Hubbard Brook Ecosystem Study, which produced seminal research papers and books describing ecosystem functions and links with land-use practices. He and his colleagues were among the first to document the link between the burning of fossil fuels and acid rain.

Likens received the National Medal of Science, the nation's highest science honor, in 2001 for his contributions to ecology. In 2003, he was the co-recipient of the Blue Planet Prize for outstanding scientific research helping to solve global environmental problems.

Likens is a 1962 doctoral graduate from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. In 2006, he was elected to be a member of the American Philosophical Society.

The Cornell-Gladstone-Hanlon-Kaufmann Annual Lectureship on Environmental Education and Communication was established by Virginia and William Kaufmann through a gift to the College at Oneonta Foundation in 1999.

The lecture series is named in honor of several families from the Oneonta and Stamford areas who exemplified an enduring love and appreciation for the natural resources of the Catskill region.

Virginia Kaufmann was a 1944 SUCO graduate.

More information about the lecture is available from Dr. Thomas Horvath, director of the Environmental Sciences Program at SUCO, at 436-3899.