Plenary Speakers

Plenary sessions are scheduled for Thursday, May 25th, and Friday, May 26th.

Dr. Peter H. Raven

Peter H. Raven is Director of the Missouri Botanical Garden and Engelmann Professor of Botany at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. The Garden, which opened in St. Louis in 1859, is the nation's oldest botanical garden. Dr. Raven has been director for more than 35 years and has been recognized for making it a world-class display, educational and botanical research institution devoted to conservation and the preservation of biodiversity. Described by TIME Magazine as a "Hero for the Planet," he champions research around the world to preserve endangered plants and is a passionate and leading advocate for conservation, biodiversity, and a sustainable environment.

In 2004, Dr. Raven was appointed to the President's Committee on the National Medal of Science. He has served as chair of the National Geographic Society's Committee for Research and Exploration, was a member of the President's Committee of Advisors on Science and Technology, past president and chair of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and served for 12 years as Home Secretary of the National Academy of Sciences. Recent awards include the ANZAAS Medal for Scientific Achievement, the Royal Horticultural Society's Veitch Memorial Medal, Japan's International Cosmos Prize, and the National Medal of Science, America's highest award for scientific accomplishment.

Dr. Raven completed his undergraduate work at the University of California, Berkeley, received his Ph.D. from the University of California, Los Angeles, and taught for nine years at Stanford University. The author of numerous books and publications, both popular and scientific, he has written extensively about his concern of plant extinctions that are increasing exponentially and the means of averting them.

Dr. Jorge Soberón

Jorge Soberón is a Senior Scientist at the Biodiversity Research Center of the University of Kansas and former Director of the National Biodiversity Agency of Mexico, CONABIO. Dr. Soberón has also been involved in biodiversity policy and diplomacy, attending CBD, GBIF, and other biodiversity-related meetings, as well as serving as a board member with organizations in Mexico and abroad. He was trained as a theoretical population ecologist, first at the National University of Mexico, and then at Imperial College in the United Kingdom, where he obtained his Ph.D. His current research interests lie in the description and modeling of biodiversity patterns at a geographical scale, including understanding the causes of species distributions like fundamental niches, migration, and evolution, and in patterns of alpha and beta diversity. Soberón is the author of numerous scientific papers and a contributor to books on science popularization.