Each year, the FWCB invites a distinguished scientist or conservationist to campus to give the Kolshorn Lecture. The Kolshorn lecture series was established in 1982 to honor Otto W. Kolshorn. Otto Kolshorn was a farmer, teacher, school board member, and Justice-of-the Peace from Goodhue County, Minnesota, who served 5 terms in the Minnesota House of Representatives.
2025 Kolshorn Lecture
Dr. Selina Heppell, Oregon State University
Will present "Think before you leap: Considering conservation strategies in the Anthropocene"
October 23rd, in the Bell Museum Auditorium
Early Kolshorn Lecturers (1984-1994)
- Pete Petosky
- Carlos Fetterolf
- Tom Lovejoy
- Stewart Udall
- Amy Vedder
- E. Charles Meslow
- Jim Brandenburg & David Mech
Later Kolshorn Lecturers
1995
Michael Wallace (San Diego Zoo)
1996
Melanie Stiassney (American Museum of National History)
1997
Richard Mace (Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks)
1998
Stephen O’Brien (National Institutes of Health)
1999
Carl Safina (Author)
2000
Rodney Sando (Idaho Dept of Fish and Game)
2001
Dr. Theo Colburn (World Wildlife Foundation; Author of Our Stolen Future)
2002
William Mansfield (UNEP)
2003
Shane Mahoney (Memorial University of Newfoundland and Labrador)
2004
Dr. Gary Ankley (US Environmental Protection Agency)
2005
Sam Mc Naughton (Syracuse University)
2006
Daniel Simberloff (University of Tennessee)
2007
Dr. Anthony Sinclair (University of British Columbia)
2008
Dr. David B. Wake (UC-Berkeley)
2009
Samuel Gruber (Director, Bimini Biological Field Station)
2011
The Case of the Killer Cookie: Oil Palm, Logging, and Species Extinction in Southeast Asia
Dr. David S. Wilcove (Princeton University)
2012
The Vanishing Arctic
Dr. Eric Post (Pennsylvania State University)
2014
The Science of Catch-and-Release Fishing
Dr. Steven Cooke (Canada Research Chair of Environmental Science & Biology | Carleton University - Ottawa, Ontario)
2015
Tracking wildlife, advancing conservation: pioneering studies of antarctic seals, sea otters, and wild horses
Dr. Donald Siniff (University of Minnesota)
2016
Citizen Science Networks: discovering how to support and study practices that can help the birds and bees
Dr. Janis Dickinson (Cornell Lab of Ornithology)
2017
How global change affects species resistance
Dr. Marie-Josee Fortin (University of Toronto)
2018
Fate or chance: is evolution predictable or were humans an inevitable result?
Dr. Jonathan Losos (Washington University)
2019
Creating resilient coastal communities and ecosystems: connecting marine conservation science and practice
Dr. Heather Leslie (University of Maine Darling Marine Center)
2022
Into the Forbidden Forest: Discovering the Biodiversity Treasures of a Madagascar Rainforest
Dr. Patricia Wright (Stony Brook University)
2023
Into the Forbidden Forest: Discovering the Biodiversity Treasures of a Madagascar Rainforest
Dr. Karen Lips (University of Maryland)
2024
Diversity (Evolution) and Connection (Ecology) in Science, and Beyond
Dr. JC Buckner (University of Texas Arlington)