College of Integrative Sciences

ELEMENTAL Book Launch and Signing – Beneski Museum: Stephen Porder will be in conversation with Nancy Pick about his new book Elemental: How Five Elements Changed the Earth’s Past and Will Shape Our Future (2023, Princeton University Press) on Thursday, September 28 at 4:00 pm in the Beneski Museum of Natural History at Amherst College. 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. Dr. Porder received his BA in History from Amherst College in 1994, his MS 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).