Jessica Hellmann
Keynote Presentation : Our climate change journey—the perspective of a climate scientist
Public awareness and concern about climate change has never been higher, yet our society is falling short of addressing this grand challenge. In this talk, U of M professor and environment institute director, Jessica Hellmann, shares her journey of discovery, communication, and advocacy for climate issues over two decades. Her journey starts and ends with data and experiments, but it veers into ethics, justice, stewardship, and policy. Come learn why finding our way to climate action will take more courage and ambition than ever and how climate science sheds light on our moral duty to each other and our planet.
Jessica Hellmann is the Director of the Institute on Environment at the University of Minnesota, where she holds the Ecolab Environment Research Chair. As director, she provides overall strategic leadership for the Institute, an internationally recognized organization working to solve grand environmental challenges, while promoting interdisciplinary research, teaching and leadership across the university and engaging external partners and stakeholders. She is also the Russell M. and Elizabeth M. Bennett Chair in Excellence in the Department of Ecology, Evolution and Behavior. Her research examines adaptation and vulnerability of biological species to climate change. Hellmann earned her Ph.D. in biology from Stanford University and served as a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford’s Center for International Security and Cooperation and the University of British Columbia’s Center for Biodiversity Research. She is an alumna of Stanford’s Leopold Environmental Leadership Program and a recipient of a career enhancement fellowship from the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation.