Ancient Maya civilization—known for its cities, monumental architecture, ceramics, hieroglyphic writing, and advanced understanding of mathematics and astronomy—suffered a major demise between the tenth and eleventh centuries. The causes continue to be investigated and debated. Paleoenvironmental research over the past twenty years has revealed that the demise coincided with a prolonged intensive drought that extended across the region, providing compelling evidence that climate change played a key role in the collapse of the Maya.

In this lecture, Billie Turner will examine...

Join us for a lecture from Kenneth I. Helphand FASLA, a Philip H. Knight Professor of Landscape Architecture Emeritus at the University of Oregon where he has taught courses in landscape history, theory and design since 1974. He is a graduate of Brandeis University (1968) and Harvard's Graduate School of Design (MLA 1972). Helphand is the recipient of distinguished teaching awards from the University of Oregon and the Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture. He is also the author...

Gabriela Soto Laveaga, Professor of the History of Science, Harvard University

As a devastating famine gripped India and Pakistan in 1966, a cargo of hybrid wheat seeds from Mexico arrived one fateful day on India’s coast. The seeds were first planted across the Punjab region using new...

Jeremy Jackson, Emeritus Professor of Oceanography, Scripps Institution of Oceanography
Senior Scientist Emeritus, Smithsonian Institution

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