The Keynote is FREE to attend NO registration required.
Back to Basics
Keynote
8:45 am Saturday, February 17 - Free & no registration required
"Climate Change in Our Own Backyards"
This talk is a look at measured evidence for climate change throughout Minnesota, as well as some examples of the most visible consequences of climate change. The evidence is obvious in climate data trends & the consequences are very real, affecting both our state’s natural resources & our societal infrastructure. These trends mandate a response from us in terms of climate adaptation as well as mitigation strategies to slow the pace of climate change.
Keynote Bio
Dr. Mark Seeley, Meteorologist & Climatologist
As a faculty member in the University of Minnesota’s Department of Soil, Water, and Climate from 1978 to 2018, Dr. Seeley participated in thousands of public speaking engagements, meetings, media interviews and person-to-person interactions where he shared his considerable knowledge of the critical relationship between climate and agricultural production.
He was hired to the new position of Extension Climatologist at the University of Minnesota in 1978; in 1989 he was awarded tenure with the rank of professor to go along with his title of Extension meteorologist/climatologist. Mark is one of the most widely recognized and respected University of Minnesota faculty members. He has done weekly commentary on Minnesota Public Radio since fall 1992, where he provides weekly weather and climate commentary on Morning Edition as well as writing Minnesota WeatherTalk, a weekly online newsletter with more than 5,000 subscribers. He is the author of Minnesota Weather Almanac and co-author (with Don Breneman) of Voyageur Skies: Weather and the Wilderness in Minnesota’s National Park (Afton Press, 2011), an award-winning book about the state’s only national park.
Dr. Seeley has been honored with a variety of awards, some of which include: Minnesota Crop Production Retailers Association Outstanding Service Award, December 2017; Minnesota Agri-Growth Council Distinguished Service Award, November 2017; The Siehl Prize in Agriculture for lifetime contributions of knowledge to the agricultural sciences, May 2014; The University President’s Award for Outstanding Community Service, May, 2012; The Scientific Communication and Education Award from Sigma Xi (2001, 2008, 2017); the University of Minnesota Extension Dean and Director’s Award, 2006; the MN/DOT Research Center Partnership Award (for design and use of snow fences), 2003.