Each winter, Director William (Ned) Friedman and the Arnold Arboretum present the Director’s Lecture Series, featuring nationally recognized experts addressing an array of topics related to Earth’s biodiversity and evolutionary history, the environment, conservation biology, and key social issues associated with current science. The Director’s Lecture Series is open to current Arnold Arboretum members only; visit http://arboretum.harvard.edu for information on becoming a member. Lectures take place in the Hunnewell Building Lecture Hall. Parking will be available along the Arborway and in front of the Hunnewell Building on lecture nights.

This year’s four lectures, on January 22, February 26, March 26, and April 30, will be individually featured as posts on this website in the coming months, but because the series tends to “sell out” quickly, we suggest visiting https://www.arboretum.harvard.edu/news-events/directors-lecture-series/ right now and signing up for one or more of these stunningly diverse lectures. Ned Friedman will begin with a talk on the history of photosynthetic life, Dava Sobel will talk about women in the Harvard College Observatory, taken from her book The Glass Universe, Jerry Mitrovica discusses sea level change, and Randall Fuller will present on Henry David Thoreau and Charles Darwin.