2022 Kolshorn Lecture

Each year, the Department of Fisheries, Wildlife, and Conservation Biology (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.

Patricia Wright, PhD, is the Herrnstein Endowed Chair in Conservation Biology at Stony Brook University. She and colleagues discovered the golden bamboo lemur (Hapalemur aureus) in 1986 in Madagascar. When this rain forest, and the future of this new species, were threatened by timber exploitation, Wright spearheaded an integrated conservation and development project at Ranomafana that focused on the protection and conservation of endemic flora and fauna as well as rural development, education, and promotion of health services in the park's peripheral zone.

In 1991, Ranomafana National Park was inaugurated, and in 2007, it was awarded World Heritage status. In 1997, the Ranomafana National Park management was handed over to the Malagasy Park Service. Since 1997, Wright has continued to be actively involved in biodiversity research and exploration in Madagascar. Wright’s research includes the effects of human induced and natural change on Madagascar rainforest, effects of pollination and seed dispersal by lemurs, ecosystem dynamics, and ecosystem genomics.