The 2012 Isabelle Sprague Lecture will be given by Alison Power, professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at Cornell University.

 

Her lecture, "Diversity and Disease in Plant Communities," draws from her research, which focuses on biodiversity conservation in managed ecosystems, interactions between agricultural and natural ecosystems, agroecology, the ecology and evolution of plant pathogens, invasive species, and tropical ecology.

 

Powers currently leads a working group on the roles of natural enemies and mutualists in plant invasions at the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis. She serves as vice-president for public affairs for the Ecological Society of America and as the presidential university fellow of the Nature Conservancy.  She also serves on the committee on California Agricultural Research Priorities of the National Research Council and the oversight committee of the Collaborative Crop Research Program of the McKnight Foundation.