Gretchen LeBuhn, Ph.D, Professor, Department of Biology, SFSU
Heidi Ballard, Ph.D, Associate Professor, School of Education, UC Davis
Mary Ellen Hannibal, Journalist – Moderator

Public participation in scientific research, also known as "citizen science," is a burgeoning practice that is more accessible than ever. As the world is confronted with growing challenges, from climate change to political upheavals, the individuals' ability to record observations to help assess the health of people and ecosystems is a valuable asset. Citizen science programs help empower communities to understand threats to their landscapes and well-being. They also help people understand science and how it is applied.  

Professor Gretchen LeBuhn of SFSU directs the world's largest citizen science undertaking on pollinators, The Great Sunflower Project, which enjoins regular people to make observations of bees in their own backyards. As one in every three bites of food each of us takes depends on pollinator services, she asserts that it is imperative to understand what is causing current bee declines. 

Professor Heidi Ballard of UC Davis is at the forefront of finding out how citizen science works and why it matters, and her work emphasizes citizen science that empowers communities to ask their own questions and thus to more directly serve their own needs. 

These two leading intellectuals will discuss the ways in which people, technology and crowd-sourcing are making a difference. The program will be moderated by award-winning journalist Mary Ellen Hannibal.

MLF: Science & Technology/Environment & Natural Resources
Location: SF Club Office
Time: 5:30 p.m. networking reception, 6 p.m. program
Cost: $20 non-members, MEMBERS FREE, students free (with valid ID)
Program Organizer: Chisako Ress
Also know: In association with SFSU and UC Davis

John Gillis, Ph.D., Professor of History, Emeritus, Rutgers University; Presenter, "What Happens when Shores Become Coasts”
Susan Schwartzenberg, Senior Artist, San Francisco Exploratorium; Presenter, "The Bay Observatory: Musings on the Water's Edge"
Robin Grossinger, Ph.D., Environmental Scientist, San Francisco Estuary Institute; Presenter, "Second Chance: Shaping the Future Bay”
Gray Brechin, Ph.D., Geographer – Moderator

The Save the Bay moment of the 1970s was a premier regional effort at environmental protection and presented a model to the world. It remains an unfinished project, however, for the San Francisco estuary, like all shores, is what Rachel Carson called an “elusive and indefinable boundary,” which can never be saved once and for all.

Today, we are working with perspectives of the Bay that are informed by a deeper, more fluid understanding of both geography and history. Research by Robin Grossinger and his colleagues at the San Francisco Estuary Institute informs us of what it was like before the arrival of Europeans. This is supplemented by John Gillis’ historical study of coasts and coastal peoples. Exploratorium artist Susan Schwartzenberg offers us the artist’s capacity to explore the future through the powers of the imagination.

Together, these three panelists will open up for us the future of the Bay as perceived by science and the arts. They will explore their subject as a regional enterprise, an ecological whole that must take into account all the Bay’s species, including our own.