Geology Book Launch & Signing: Stephen Porder '94

Stephen Porder '94 will be in conversation with Nancy Pick '83 about his new book "Elemental: How Five Elements Changed the Earth’s Past and Will Shape Our Future" (2023, Princeton University Press). "Elemental" explores how microbes, plants and people used the fundamental building blocks of life to change our living planet, and how understanding our collective past can help us build a more sustainable future.

Porder is the Acacia Professor in the Department of Ecology, Evolution and Organismal Biology, and in the Institute for Environment and Society, as well as the associate provost for Sustainability at Brown University. His research is focused on the interdisciplinary investigation of terrestrial ecosystems, combining ecology, biogeochemistry and geology. As associate provost he leads the charge to eliminate fossil-fuel combustion from campus and to integrate this and other sustainability goals into the research, teaching and lived experience at Brown. Porder received his B.A. in history from Amherst College in 1994, his M.S. in geology from The University of Montana in 1997 and his Ph.D. in biology from Stanford University in 2005.

Nancy Pick is a 1983 graduate of Amherst College. Among other contributions, she is the author of Curious Footprints: Professor Hitchcock’s Dinosaur Tracks & Other Natural History Treasures at Amherst College (2006, Amherst College Press) and Eye Mind Heart: A View of Amherst College at 200 (2020, Amherst College Press).

The public is welcome.