The Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences is pleased to announce that Dr. Suzanne Simard, professor of forest ecology at the University of British Columbia and author of the best-selling book Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest (Knopf, 2021), will deliver the Huck Distinguished Lecture in the Life Sciences at 4.00 p.m. on April 18, 2023. The lecture will take place in the Flex Theatre of the HUB-Robeson Center at Penn State University Park.

The author of more than 170 scientific articles in peer-reviewed journals, leader of the Mother Tree Project, and a popular public speaker, Dr. Simard is best-known for her research on the interconnected lives of trees in forests. In her best-selling book, Finding the Mother Tree, Simard brings readers into the intimate world of trees, exploring the ways in which trees learn and adapt their behaviors, remember the past, demonstrate agency over the future, and cooperate with a sophistication usually ascribed to humans. In her lecture, Dr. Simard will draw on decades of research to help listeners understand just how vital trees are—to each other, to ecological communities, and to humans.

“The opportunity to learn from Dr. Simard is particularly exciting because of the ways her research brings insights from the life sciences into conversation with contemporary ethical, political, and pragmatic questions about how humans can lead more sustainable lives,” said Dr. Andrew Read, director of the Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences.

The transdisciplinary reach of Dr. Simard’s research and lecture is evident in the lengthy list of University units co-sponsoring her lecture. In addition to the Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences, the College of the Liberal Arts, the College of Agricultural Sciences, the Bellisario College of Communications, the Department of Communication Arts and Sciences, the Department of Landscape Architecture, the Department of English, the Department of Philosophy, the Department of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, the Sustainability Institute, the Humanities Institute, and the Rock Ethics Institute are providing essential support for the lecture.