Richard Moss (Carleton Class of 1977) works at the intersection of climate science and policy as Senior Scientist at the Joint Global Change Research Institute at the University of Maryland. He directed the U.S. government's climate research program from 2000-2006 (spanning the Clinton and Bush administrations) and led preparation of a number of reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) from 1993-1998. He also led climate change programs at the World Wildlife Fund and the United Nations Foundation. Moss remains active in the IPCC and attended the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony in 2007, when IPCC shared the award with Al Gore. He is also active in the climate research committees of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences. An English literature major at Carleton, Moss received his Ph.D. in public policy from Princeton before delving into climate change research. Moss’ experiences demonstrate the value of a liberal arts education and Carleton's distribution requirements! The title of his presentation was "What Do We Need to Know to Act on Climate Change?"

Gary Paul Nabhan, PhD, is an Arab-American writer, lecturer, food and farming advocate, rural lifeways folklorist, and conservationist who has been called the "father of the local food movement." His Opening Convocation address was titled "Renewing America's Food Traditions."

Gary Nabhan has authored more than twenty books on natural and cultural history, conservation, and sustainable agriculture. In addition, he has lectured at universities in Mexico, Lebanon, Peru, Oman, Guatemala, and Italy, including Slow Food’s University of Gastronomic Sciences in Pollenzo. For his literary work and his grassroots conservation and community-based ethnobiology projects, Nabhan has been honored with the John Burroughs Medal for Nature Writing, a MacArthur Genius Fellowship, a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Society for Conservation Biology, a Lannan Literary Fellowship, a Pew Fellowship in Conservation and Environment, and a Quivira Coalition award for excellence in science that contributes to “the radical center.”

Dr. Nabhan recently accepted a tenured professorship as a Research Social Scientist based at the Southwest Center of the University of Arizona, his alma mater.

Robert Oden III is a Senior Commercialisation Manager at EcoSecurities, one of the world's leading companies in the business of originating, developing and trading carbon credits. The last 10 years has seen EcoSecurities involved in the development of many of the global carbon market’s most important milestones, including developing the world’s first Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) project to be registered under the Kyoto Protocol, and the first to be issued with carbon credits. Today, the company is working on over 400 projects in 36 countries using 18 different technologies, with the potential to generate more than 142 million carbon credits. A 1993 graduate of Harvard University and the son of Carleton president Robert Oden Jr., Oden's presentation was titled "The Business (?) of Saving the Planet (??)."

Kent Wommack has worked since 1982 for The Nature Conservancy, and is often credited with changing the scale of conservation projects in this country by leading some of the Conservancy's largest, most complex and innovative projects. The world's leading conservation organization, the Conservancy works around the world to protect ecologically important lands and waters for nature and people. Since its founding in 1951, they have protected more than 117 million acres of land and 5,000 miles of rivers worldwide, and they operate more than 100 marine conservation projects in all 50 states and more than 30 countries. The success of the Conservancy is due to their science-based approach, aided by their more than 700 staff scientists. They pursue non-confrontational, pragmatic solutions to conservation challenges, partnering with indigenous communities, businesses, governments, multilateral institutions, and other non-profits. The title of his presentation was "Conservation as if Nature and People Both Mattered".

David Quammen is a science journalist and nonfiction author. He travels on assignment for various magazines, usually to jungles, deserts, or swamps, and his accustomed beat is the world of field biology, ecology, evolutionary biology, and conservation. He currently holds the positions of Contributing Writer for National Geographic Magazine and Wallace Stegner Professor of Western American Studies at Montana State University. In his book The Reluctant Mr. Darwin, Quammen focuses careful attention on Charles Darwin, father of modern biology and source of an idea so radical its implications are still only imperfectly understood: evolution by natural selection. Quammen tracks the naturalist's life through the two decades following his epiphany that "natural selection" formed the basis of evolution, a time during which Darwin kept his explosive idea under wraps and pondered when and how to release it to the world. Commemorating the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin, Quammen’s presentation was titled "Charles Darwin Against Himself: Caution versus Honesty in the Life of a Reluctant Revolutionary."

Tyrone Hayes is a biologist and herpetologist who knows that scientific breakthroughs don’t begin and end in the laboratory. They also come from the field. Which is why, more often than not, Hayes can be found wet, muddy, and knee-deep in a swamp at 2 a.m., the time when the frogs come out. Associate professor of integrative biology at the University of California, Berkeley, Hayes’ primary research focuses on the role of environmental factors on growth and development in amphibians. His studies have revealed how synthetic chemicals (such as the pesticide atrazine which is frequently used in Minnesota) interact with hormones in a variety of ways to alter developmental responses. As these studies also help predict effects in other wildlife and humans, Hayes’ findings reveal a crucial new link between conservation and health. The title of his presentation was "From Silent Spring to Silent Night: A Tale of Toads and Men".

Edith Widder is a biologist, deep-sea explorer, and specialist in bioluminescence (the light chemically produced by many ocean organisms). Her convocation address on “New Technologies to Discover Our World,” combined her expertise in deep-sea research and technological innovation with her commitment to reversing the worldwide trend of degradation to the world's marine environments. In 2005, Widder co-founded the Ocean Research Conservation Association (ORCA), which strives to develop high-tech sensory equipment to evaluate the health and preservation of marine ecosystems. “We are destroying the oceans faster than we can discover what’s in them,” she warns. “A lot of people are totally unaware of what’s going on in our oceans. We need to educate them to avert a crisis, and I’d like to be part of the solution.”