Speaker: Dr. Nancy Knowlton
Conservation Bright Spots: Making a Difference for Nature, Climate and People
Wednesday, February 11, 2026
12:50 - 1:50 p.m. |
Dr. Nancy Knowlton Lecture |
|---|---|
2:00 - 4:00 p.m. |
Poster Session and Refreshments To present your poster at this event, please email wlmb@whitney.ufl.edu with your name, title and abstract. Poster information submission deadline - January 21, 2026. |
Thursday, February 12, 2026
6-7 p.m.
Scientific journals, news reports and social media are filled with reports of extinctions, climate catastrophes, and the human suffering that ensues from destabilizing the natural systems that sustain life on this planet. With so much focus on doom and gloom, it is easy to give up hope, making further calamities ever more likely. Yet the reality of where we find ourselves today is more complex.
Despite the grim numbers overall, there are bright spots: species saved, land- and seascapes protected and restored, and a now unstoppable renewable energy revolution. Moreover, the benefits for people are becoming clearer, speeding progress and making it more durable. Examples from around the world offer important lessons for the future, as we navigate the challenges of the Anthropocene.
Dr. Nancy Knowlton
SANT CHAIR EMERITA AT THE SMITHSONIAN’S NATIONAL MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY
Dr. Nancy Knowlton is a distinguished author, public speaker, marine scientist and conservation biologist who has dived on coral reefs around the world. Her discovery of why some corals are more sensitive to high temperatures continues to shape efforts to protect reefs from the effects of global warming. Dr. Knowlton’s many honors include election to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, the National Marine Sanctuary Foundation’s Lifetime Achievement Award, and the International Coral Reef Society’s Darwin Medal. She currently serves on the global Board of Directors of The Nature Conservancy.
Dr. Knowlton spent much of her career at the Smithsonian, first at the Tropical Research Institute in Panama and then at the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, DC. She was also a professor at Yale and at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California San Diego, where she founded the Center for Marine Biodiversity and Conservation. Her pioneering recognition of the limits of “doom and gloom” messaging led to the “Beyond the Obituaries” symposia, the #OceanOptimism Twitter campaign, and the Smithsonian’s Earth Optimism Summits. These initiatives helped shift the focus towards solutions and successes across the global conservation community, a goal that she continues to pursue in her writings, talks, and on social media (@nancyknowlton.bsky.social).
Organized by:
Whitney Laboratory for Marine Bioscience
UF Center for Coastal Solutions
The Whitney Lecture started in the late 1990’s with generous endowed support from an esteemed research scientists and scientific adviser at Whitney. The series is designed to bring preeminent scientists to the Whitney Lab and the University of Florida’s main campus to help build on our strength in marine biomedical research and share this with our main campus scientific community.