Plans are being made for a fall series. Please check back.
Date:
Location:
Time:
Description:
Ralph Greggs to speak on "Global Economic Issues: Causes, Remedies and Predictions" (Capital Crunch, or Hardtack with your Lutefisk Dip?)
Date: Thursday, April 30, 2009
Location: Gates Center, College of the Atlantic
Time: 5:00 pm
Description: Financial expert Ralph Greggs will discuss the origins and characteristics of the capital crunch now underway throughout the
global economy, and speculate on a future when
capital will once again circulate more freely.
The markets for capital in its many different forms have occupied Greggs's attention over the last thirty-five years. At present he studies the movements of the capital markets for stocks and bonds around the world as Senior Vice-President for a large Boston based mutual fund house.
Greggs graduated from Fordham University with a
B.A. in History and received a Master of Science
degree in finance from the University of Colorado.
He began his professional career in Denver with
Lipper Inc. While in Colorado, Greggs had a chance to study the development and financing of nineteenth century Colorado gold mines, a subject that gains new interest in light of recent challenges to so-called hard currency.
The lecture is free and open to the public.
Russell Libby: "A Face, A Place, A Taste: Our Next Food System."
Date: Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Location: Gates Community Center at College of the Atlantic, Bar Harbor
Time: 4:30 pm
Description: Russell Libby will discuss the economic, social and political environment and how it will help or hurt Maine's ability to feed itself with healthy, locally grown and sustainable food products.
As the Director of MOFGA he works to build the State's growing organic movement. He has a degree in economics from Bowdoin College and a Masters in resource economics from the
University of Maine.
Russell's involvement with MOFGA started at the first Common Ground Country Fair in 1977
where he saw a connection between local, organic food and a strong Maine economy. He began
participating in the Consortium for Maine Food Self-Reliance in 1979, and joined the MOFGA
Board of Directors in 1983. He became Executive Director in 1995.
Libby has led MOFGA's growth over the past thirteen years as the organization moved to the
new Common Ground Education Center in Unity, expanded the Agricultural Services and Education programs, and created a subsidiary to run the Certification program. He has a wide range of agricultural affiliations, including 10 years as Research Director at the Maine Department of Agriculture. He currently serves on the boards of: the Agricultural Council of Maine; the University of Maine Board of Agriculture; Maine Farmland Trust; Eat Local Foods Coalition; National Organic Coalition; and FEDCO seeds.
With his wife and three daughters, he operates Three Sisters Farm, a small diversified farm, in
Mount Vernon. His first book, "Balance: A Late Pastoral," was published in 2007.
All programs in the ASC Big Ideas Series are free and open to the public.
William Osborn: “Beyond Net Zero: Energy Choices in the Next Decade,"
Date: January 29, 2009
Location: The Gates Community Center, College of the Atlantic, Bar Harbor
Time: 4:30 pm
Description: Acadia Senior College’s “Big Ideas of the 21st Century Series” has been renamed “The
Susan Lerner and Steve Katona Big Ideas Series” in honor of the couple who originated the concept.
The next featured speaker in this series will be William Osborn. His talk is entitled “Beyond Net Zero: Energy Choices in the Next Decade," and will be held at the Gates Community Center, College of the Atlantic, Bar Harbor, on January 29, 2009, at 4:30 pm.
William Osborn manages two venture capital funds that invest in clean energy companies, Commons Capital and the Massachusetts Green Energy Fund. Included in the funds' portfolios are three advanced photovoltaic (solar electric) companies and two fuel cell manufacturers. Also included are a maker of highly efficient hydrogen generators, a
wave energy generator developer, and two green tech information firms.
Osborn has been in the venture capital business for 15 years. Prior to that, he was an energy industry consultant at Arthur D. Little. He was also the founder and general manager of an electric transportation company and the head of a state solar energy office.
He has been a leader in the socially responsible investing community as a founding Trustee of Domini Social Investments. He has also been a Board Member of Investors' Circle, the nationwide network of private "double bottom line" angel investors.
Osborn started his career as an attorney, first for Boston Legal Services and later as general counsel for the Massachusetts Energy Facilities Siting Council. Just after law school, he worked for Ralph Nader's Center for the Study of Responsive Law. There he researched and wrote a report on the social and environmental impacts of the pulp and
paper industry on the state of Maine. This was later published as "The Paper Plantation." Osborn has a BA from Princeton University and JD from GeorgeWashington Law School.
This event is open to the public. No reservations required.
Big Ideas of the 21st Century
“Sustainable Development: Can
it be Done in This or Any Century?”
Date: November 7, 2008
Location: MDI Biological Lab, Salisbury Cove
Time: 5:00 pm
Description: Two of the big global ideas of the 20th century, now at least fifty years old, have been development and environment. But can we have both - meeting human needs for food, energy, housing, health, employment, education - while preserving the life support systems of the planet? The vision that we could do both came together at the end of the 20th century under the rubric of sustainable development and is now part of the jargon of our times. But many think that development is not sustainable and a great natural experiment is underway in clarifying this big idea and transforming it into needed action.
Robert Kates trained as a geographer and taught geography for many years at Clark University in Worcester, MA, USA. He also participated in interdisciplinary programs addressing both environment and development at the University of Dar as Salaam in Tanzania, Clark University, and at the World Hunger Program at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. Kates now serves as a Senior Research Associate in the Sustainability Science Program at Harvard University, is co-convener of the International Initiative on Science and Technology for Sustainability, a presidential professor at the University of Maine, as well as the Trenton representative to the Acadia Disposal District. As a member of the National Academy of Sciences, he co-chaired the report, “Our Common Journey: A Transition Toward Sustainability.” His current research is on long term trends, values, attitudes, and beliefs affecting a sustainability transition and on community resilience to hazards and climate change.
Big Ideas of the 21st Century
"Beyond the Human Genome Project:
A Future of Individualized Medicine"
Date: Took place: September 22, 2008
Location: Jackson Laboratory Auditorium
Time: 5:30 p.m.
Description: Richard P. Woychik, PhD, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Jackson Laboratory, will speak on the future of individualized medicine as it relates to the Human Genome Project.
This is part of a continuing series of "Big Ideas of the 21st Century" sponsored by Acadia Senior College.