Liz Hadly in Canada

Elizabeth Hadly, Paul S. & Billie Achilles Professor of Environmental Biology and Professor of Biology and Earth System Science, Emerita, at Stanford University, is a global change scientist who has spent more than 40 years studying the impacts of environmental change of the past, present and future of biodiversity. She served on the faculty at the Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve for more than 20 years and as its Faculty Director from 2016 to 2023. In her continued quest to preserve and protect natural lands, she now serves on the board of the National Park Conservation Association. Her research has taken her from iconic Yellowstone National Park to the top of Mount Kilimanjaro, from the Himalayas to the jungles of Rwanda, from the grassland steppe of Patagonia to the Kalahari Desert, and from the Arctic to the Antarctic in her ongoing efforts to understand and communicate about how people are changing the planet. Professor Hadly seeks to reach outside the ivory tower on issues related to climate change, disease, pollution, extinction, habitat loss, inequity and human population growth—all features of our human-dominated epoch, the Anthropocene.  

During our program, she will discuss the geological history of the Canadian Rockies, its unique biodiversity and the challenges it faces today. “The Canadian Rockies are just massive, they retain astonishing evidence of the explosion of life on Earth and they are on the front line of global change today,” says Professor Hadly. “But in addition to their value to geologists and biologists, they are stunning. Prepare to have your breath taken away.”

Positions at Stanford

• Paul S. and Billie Achilles Professor of Environmental Biology, Emerita

• Professor of Earth System Science, Emerita

Academic History

• BA, anthropology, University of Colorado, 1981

• MS, quaternary science, Northern Arizona University, 1990

• PhD, integrative biology, UC-Berkeley, 1995