The Department of Earth Sciences presents the K.D. Nelson Lecture Series, featuring guest speaker Steven Voelker from SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry. His research has two primary aims to understand:

1) climatic and biological drivers of forest health

2) past climate variation using tree-ring proxies.

Voelker often seeks to discern why some trees are thriving while others may be stressed, or diseased or dead — within stands, across landscapes and continents. For this purpose and for climate reconstruction he uses a variety of research tools, across scales, to gain these insights and convey them to diverse audiences.