Dr. Hope Jahren

The Norwegian Academy for Science and Letters

Community Lecture  Thursday, September 11, 2025  6:00 - 7:00 PM 

Russel H. Kirkhof Center, Room 2250 Grand River Room (Parking available in Lots H2 and H4)

The Soul of a Plant - The Magic Root, Leaves, and Everything in Between

Chemistry Seminar  Friday, September 12, 2025  1:00 - 2:00 PM 

Russel H. Kirkhof Center, Room 2204 Pere Marquette Room (Parking available in Lots H2 and H4)

The Past. Present and Future of Agriculture on Planet Earth

Community Lecture   The Soul of a Plant - The Magic Roots, Leaves, and Everything in Between 

Do plants feel pain? Can they talk to each other?  Do they remember the past?  Science continues to reveal the amazing and unique methods that the plants around us use to establish, grow, flourish, and defend themselves. Learn how plants are much more than food, medicine, and wood — they form the living, striving foundation of Planet Earth.

Chemistry Seminar  The Past, Present and Future of Agriculture on Planet Earth

Human life, first and foremost, requires three things: food, water and shelter.  Agriculture -- the process by which humans produce food — brings together the fundamental principles of chemistry, biology and geology in order to optimize plant and animal growth.  Learn how global agriculture has changed both plants and animals over the past 50 years, and about the challenges that a new generation of scientists will face in order to sustain humanity in the future.

Dr. Hope Jahren is the author of two best-selling non-fiction books: The Story of More (2020), a look at the dramatic ways in which our planet has changed over the past half-century, and Lab Girl (2016), a memoir of her development as a scientist.  A veteran of more than 25 years of classroom teaching, she is passionate about communicating ideas of science through a personal perspective, and about our need to step back and examine the bigger picture as to how we see Planet Earth.