F. StuartChapin III

  • 2025 SPEAKER
  • SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
F. Stuart Chapin III

F. Stuart Chapin III, known to his friends as 鈥淭erry,鈥 is an Alaskan ecologist who has written leading textbooks in ecosystem stewardship, ecosystem ecology and plant physiological ecology. Based on his stewardship work, for which he was awarded the 2019 Volvo Environment Prize, he wrote听Grassroots Stewardship: Sustainability Within Our Reach to explore stewardship with a general audience. This book presents a positive and pragmatic strategy by which individual citizens can shape a more sustainable future for nature and society.

Chapin鈥檚 research addresses the effects of changes in climate and wildfire on Alaskan ecology and rural communities. He explores ways that communities and agencies can increase sustainability of ecosystems and human communities over the long term despite rapid climatic and social changes. In this way, society can shape changes toward a more sustainable future. He pursues this internationally through the Resilience Alliance, nationally through the Ecological Society of America and in Alaska through partnerships with rural Indigenous communities.