The Athol Bird & Nature Club will present a Zoom talk on February 8 at 7 pm Eastern with Rodger Gwiazdowski entitled What is a Species, and Who Cares? He will discuss the epistemology of species boundaries, and the real-world legal implications for food, conservation, and the environment. Dr. Gwiazdowski is curious about discovering and conserving biodiversity at the species level. His research focuses on insects, where he explores primary questions about evolution, diversity, ecology and conservation, using tools from molecular systematics, bioinformatics, ecology, and animal husbandry. He is also interested in principle-based negotiations, and popularizing methods in epistemology.

Prior to his graduate work, Rodger worked in several zoological institutions (Bronx Zoo, NY Aquarium, and the Liberty Science Center). Rodger completed his Ph.D. in Evolutionary Biology & Entomology (joint degree) at UMass Amherst in 2011, where he found extraordinary cryptic species-diversity in one widespread North American pest insect that’s been “well known” for over 150 years. Concurrently, he developed captive-rearing techniques for rare tiger beetles. He then went to Canada as a post-doctoral fellow with the Biodiversity Institute of Ontario, where he developed high-throughput DNA reference libraries for rapid insect identification, and combating seafood fraud. He currently consults on innovative conservation projects with Federal and state governments, and serves as Principal Investigator of tiger beetle recovery projects, with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. He is currently Adjunct Professor of Insect Conservation at University of Massachusetts Amherst in the Department of Environmental Conservation.

To register, visit https://atholbirdclub.org/