Ecologists are not often asked to write meditations. But the first issue of SPROUT affords stimulating opportunity for reflection. The contributors wrestle with the contrast and kinship between space and place…
To advance transdisciplinary conversations about and around what constitutes the eco-urban, for each issue we reach out to a member of The Nature of Cities community to share their thoughts and reflections on the content collected therein. We curate responses from urban planners, ecologists, architects, artists, and scientists to broaden discussions around who gets to speak for a city. We embrace multiple registers and ways of thinking about green cities.
Steward Pickett, a Distinguished Senior Scientist at the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies, in Millbrook, NY, is an expert in the ecology of plants, landscapes, and urban systems. He received the B.S. from the University of Kentucky in 1972, and the PhD from the University of Illinois in 1977. He is the Director Emeritus of the Baltimore Ecosystem Study, a pioneering urban social-ecological research project. His research focuses on the origin and consequences of spatial heterogeneity and the dynamics of change in ecological systems. He is interested in advancing urban ecology theory, and better linking ecology to environmental justice. Beyond the U.S., he has conducted research in South Africa and China. He has produced books on ecological heterogeneity, humans as components of ecosystems, ecological conservation, urban ecology, the ecology and urban design, philosophy of ecology, and ecological ethics. He has served as President of the Ecological Society of America, as Secretary of the American Institute of Biological Sciences, and board member of City As Living Laboratory.