Boston Flora

Tag: Ned Friedman

  • Arnold Arboretum Director’s Lecture Series 2015

    Each year, 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. Lectures take place in the Hunnewell Building Lecture Hall. Parking will be available in front of the building and along the Arborway. These free lectures become completely subscribed early, and right now, through December 15, Arboretum members may register online prior to general registration thereafter. Visit http://my.arboretum.harvard.edu/Info.aspx?EventID=1 to sign up.

    The schedule is as follows: On Monday, January 12, hear Ned Friedman himself discuss Mutants in Our Midst: Darwin, Horticulture, and Evolution. Photographer Rachel Sussman speaks on Monday, March 2 on The Oldest Living Things in the World, Peter Raven, PhD and President Emeritus of the Missouri Botanical Garden comes on Monday, March 23 to lecture on China, Biodiversity, and the Global Environment, and finally, on Monday April 20, hear Richard Lazarus, Howard and Katherine Aibel Professor of Law at Harvard University, who will discuss Environmental Lawlessness.

  • Tuesday, November 12 – 2013 Annual Meeting of the Emerald Necklace Conservancy

    You are invited to the 2013 Annual Meeting of the Emerald Necklace Conservancy on Tuesday, November 12 at the Linda K. Paresky Conference Center at Simmons College, 300 The Fenway, Boston, Massachusetts.  Reception begins at 5:30, program at 6 pm.  Please join them and come together to thank volunteers, celebrate our parks community, and share a vision of the Emerald Necklace.  The Keynote Address will be given by Ned Friedman: The Emerald Necklace – Urban Gems of Landscape and Biodiversity.  There will be a special presentation of the 2013 Volunteer of the Year Award to Gerry Wright, co-founder of Olmsted 2022, Friends of Jamaica Pond, and Friends of Olmsted Park – Boston.  Hosting sponsor of this meeting is Simmons College, and the meeting sponsors are MASCO and Colleges of the Fenway.  This event is free and open to the public.  RSVP by November 4 online at www.emeraldnecklace.org, or by calling 617-522-2700.

    William (Ned) Friedman is Director of the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University, and Arnold Professor of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology.  He received an A.B. in Biology from Oberlin College and a Ph.D. in Botany from the University of California, Berkeley.

    http://news.harvard.edu/gazette//srv/htdocs/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/092710_Friedman_Ned_42_605.jpg

  • Saturday, May 11, 11:00 am – 3:30 pm – Ginkgo Fest: A Symposium Celebrating Ginkgo biloba

    Bombings, manhunts, and lockdowns forced the postponement of Ginkgo Fest: A Symposium Celebrating Ginkgo biloba at the Weld Hill Research Building at the Arnold Arboretum.  Luckily for us, the event has been revamped, rescheduled for Saturday, May 11 from 11 – 3:30, and even the fee has been reduced, so there is no excuse to pass up this great opportunity.  You will hear Peter Crane, Carl W. Knobloch, Jr., Dean of the School of Forestry & Environmental Studies and Professor of Botany, Yale University
    William “Ned” Friedman, Director, Arnold Arboretum and Arnold Professor of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, and Peter Del Tredici, Senior Research Scientist, Arnold Arboretum and Adjunct Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture, Graduate School of Design, Harvard University. Join these three world renowned ginkgo experts for a celebration of all things ginkgo. The day will include lectures and a tour of the Arboretum’s Ginkgo biloba collection. So don your best ginkgo outfit (we know you have at least one article of clothing with a ginkgo leaf on it) and immerse yourself in the history and biology of this relict species. Lunch is included. Outfit below from xazdesign.blogspot.com.  Register on line at https://my.arboretum.harvard.edu/Info.aspx?DayPlanner=1165&DayPlannerDate=5/11/2013.  Fee $20 member, $40 nonmember.

    http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_fSPNQAVp5w8/TH0Wm8efYkI/AAAAAAAAALs/vubDH7KjwqU/s400/full%2Bpicture%2Bgingko.jpg

  • Saturday, April 20, 10:00 am – 4:00 pm – Ginkgo Fest: A Symposium About Ginkgo biloba

    On April 20, three prominent biologists will join forces to share all they know about the unique tree species, Ginkgo biloba.  Ginkgo is a plant species that has existed since the Jurassic period with few evolutionary changes and continues to thrive today. This special symposium includes a series of lectures, a tour of the Arboretum’s Ginkgo biloba collection, and lunch with a tasting of ginkgo nuts. Ginkgo artifacts and illustrations from the Harvard Libraries and collected paraphernalia will also be on display. So don your best ginkgo outfit (we know you have at least one article of clothing with a ginkgo leaf on it) and immerse yourself in the history and biology of this relict species.

    Peter Crane, Carl W. Knobloch, Jr. Dean of the School of Forestry & Environmental Studies and Professor of Botany, Yale University, and co- author of the just published book, Ginkgo: The Tree that Time Forgot, Yale University Press,  William “Ned” Friedman, Director, Arnold Arboretum and Arnold Professor of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, and expert in the reproductive biology of early seed plants, including Ginkgo biloba, and Peter Del Tredici, Senior Research Scientist, Arnold Arboretum and Adjunct Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture, Graduate School of Design, Harvard University, a botanist who has studied ginkgo for more than 20 years and searched for and located remnant wild stands of ginkgo on the slopes of mountains in southwest China, will be the three luminaries speaking at the symposium.

    WHEN: Saturday, April 20, 2013, 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. View details and registration at https://my.arboretum.harvard.edu/Info.aspx?DayPlanner=1165&DayPlannerDate=4/20/2013

    WHERE: The Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University, Weld Hill Research Building, 1300 Centre Street, Roslindale, MA. http://arboretum.harvard.edu/visit/weld-hill-directions/

    http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41nwuVYKjoL._SL500_AA300_.jpg

     

  • Monday, January 14, 7:00 pm – Plants, The First Three Billion Years

    Plants, The First Three Billion Years: A Reflection on the Nature of Evolutionary History will be the first of this year’s Director’s Lecture Series at the Arnold Arboretum on Monday, January 14 at 7 pm at the Hunnewell Building of the Arnold Arboretum, 125 Arborway in Boston.

    Plant biodiversity. How did it all begin? And what are some of the key evolutionary twists and turns that have deposited us into a world teaming with photosynthetic life? William “Ned” Friedman, Director of the Arnold Arboretum and an evolutionary biologist, will explore how lunch for a unicellular organism inadvertently laid the groundwork for the first plants, and how they then went on to produce exquisitely beautiful multicellular photosynthetic lineages dozens of times, only one of which made it out of the water and onto land 475 million years ago.  Free, but registration requested at 617-384-5277, or email Pam Thompson at pam_thompson@harvard.edu.

  • Monday, January 9, 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm – The Evolution of Big

    Think you know trees? Come to the Hunnewell Building at the Arnold Arboretum on Monday, January 9, from 7 – 8:30 and learn about an amazing period when there were no trees, and then, in the blink of a geological eye, several different groups of plants evolved the ability to increase their girth and qualify for placement in an arboretum. Get a sense of what forests looked like over three hundred million years ago. Learn about the (sad) extinction of all but one of the early arborescent lineages of plants and find out which evolutionary group of trees survived to populate the Arnold Arboretum and today’s forests. The free lecture will be given by Ned Friedman, Director of the Arnold Arboretum and Arnold Professor of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University. Registration is required, however, so call 617-384-5277, or visit www.arboretum.harvard.edu.

  • Monday, January 31, 6:30 pm – 8:30 pm – A Darwinian Look at Darwin’s Evolutionist Ancestors

    NEW DATE: The Arnold Arboretum presents an exciting lecture series in 2011: the new Director’s Lecture Series at the Hunnewell Lecture Hall, 125 The Arborway in Boston.  The lectures are free but advance registration is required.

    On Monday, January 31, from 6:30 – 8:30 pm, Ned Friedman, newly-appointed  Director of the Arnold Arboretum, will speak on A Darwinian Look at Darwin’s Evolutionist Ancestors. Is Darwin truly deserving of his place in history? Examine the question of what set Darwin apart from the dozens of theorists who preceded him. For over a century before the publication of On the Origin of Species, naturalists, theologians, atheists, horticulturalists, medical practitioners, poets, and philosophers had advanced evolutionary concepts for the diversification of life through descent with modification. The early history of evolutionary thought will be examined through the lens of Charles Darwin’s highly personal views of his evolutionist ancestors.

    Contact Pamela Thompson, 617.384.5277. http://calendar.arboretum.harvard.edu/index.php

  • Ned Friedman Appointed Director of Arnold Arboretum

    The Arnold Arboretum is pleased to announce that Dr. William (“Ned”) Friedman has been named as its next director. Ned’s appointment at the Arboretum will officially begin on January 1, 2011, and he will also be a tenured professor of organismic and evolutionary biology in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Harvard University.

    Ned currently serves on the faculty of the University of Colorado in the department of ecology and evolutionary biology. An outstanding research scientist and educator, he intends to foster a broadly integrative plant research program at the Arboretum. Ned is also firmly committed to the Arboretum’s role as a public museum, and will strive to strengthen the institution’s partnerships with the City of Boston, local schools, museums, environmental organizations, and community-focused groups. An ardent plant enthusiast, Ned looks forward to faithfully stewarding the Arboretum’s remarkable collections and historic landscape as director.

    This winter, when you visit the Arboretum while attending one of the many classes and lectures offered, be sure to stop by and say hello to Ned. Photo by Justine Ide/Harvard Gazette.

    Ned Friedman named Director of the Arnold Arboretum

  • Thursday, November 4, 6:00 pm – Darwin’s “Abominable Mystery” and the Search for the First Flowering Plants

    Charles Darwin was baffled by many big questions in evolutionary biology, and none more so than the mystery of how the planet’s first flowering plants came to be. On Thursday, November 4, beginning at 6 pm, join William (Ned) Friedman, Professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at University of Colorado, for an exploration into the evolutionary origin of flowering plants, and how recent advances in the fossil record have shed new light on what they may have looked like, where they “lived,” and how they reproduced. Free and open to the public, Geological Lecture Hall, 24 Oxford Street. Part of the Asa Gray Bicentennial series.  For more information, log on to www.hmnh.harvard.edu.  Image courtesy of NASA.