Professor, author and consultant R. Paul Thompson will discuss the current state of food security and technology and the history behind food and water challenges during the Department of History’s 2013 Carroll R. Pauley Lecture.
Thompson, professor of philosophy and evolutionary biology at the University of Toronto, will deliver the lecture, titled “Water, Food Security, and Agro-technology: Current Challenges Placed in Historical Context,” at 7 p.m. Oct. 3 in the Great Plains Art Museum, 1155 Q St.
At the University of Toronto, Thompson is a member of the Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology, the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, and the Department of Philosophy.
He has published extensively on evolutionary theory, population genetics, mathematical modeling in biology, theory structure in biology, philosophy of medicine, and ethics. He is the author of three books (The Moral Question, The Structure of Biological Theories, and Agro-Technology), and he has edited Issues in Evolutionary Ethics. He has held numerous consulting positions with governments and industry.
He is Past President, and a director of the Green Door Alliance Inc., a registered charity, dedicated to preserving agricultural land. He has worked for many years on agricultural capacity and poverty relief in Kenya through Rural Outreach Program.
The Pauley Lecture is named for a UNL alumnus who graduated in 1930. Thompson’s visit is sponsored by the Department of History, the UNL Research Council, the Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources and the Daugherty Water for Food Institute.
