Renowned Scientist and Ecologist To Speak at Trinity

Trinity University is thrilled to announce Robin Wall Kimmerer, Ph.D., as this year's DeCoursey Lecturer. Kimmerer, a renowned plant biologist and author of Braiding Sweetgrass, will present on Monday, November 4, at 7 p.m. in Trinity’s Laurie Auditorium.

Kimmerer is a mother, scientist, decorated professor, and enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation. She is the author of Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants. Additionally, she has written two other acclaimed books and has been featured in numerous scientific journals.

Kimmerer has been a guest on the NPR show On Being with Krista Tippett, and in 2015 she addressed the U.N.’s General Assembly on the topic of “Healing Our Relationship with Nature.” She is a SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor of Environmental Biology and was named a MacArthur Fellow in 2022. She is also the founder and director of the Center for Native People and the Environment, whose mission is to create programs drawing on the wisdom of both indigenous and scientific knowledge for a shared goal of sustainability.

Kimmerer holds a bachelor’s degree in Botany from SUNY ESF and a master’s degree and doctorate in Botany from the University of Wisconsin. As a writer and scientist, her interest in restoration includes not only the restoration of ecological communities but also the restoration of our relationships with land. She has authored many papers on plant ecology, bryophyte ecology, traditional knowledge and restoration ecology. She currently lives on an old farm in upstate New York, tending gardens both cultivated and wild.

This DeCoursey Lecture is free, but registration is required and can be completed on Trinity's events page.

The DeCoursey Lecture Series features internationally celebrated scientists and humanists for the Trinity and San Antonio community. The DeCoursey Lecture Series is made possible by a gift from the late General Elbert DeCoursey and Mrs. Esther DeCoursey of San Antonio.