AMES, Iowa — David R. Montgomery, a professor of earth and space sciences at the University of Washington, will speak about soil sustainability March 28 at Iowa State University.
Montgomery will present the 2019 Pesek Colloquium on Sustainable Agriculture at 7 p.m. in the Great Hall at the Memorial Union. He is scheduled to speak about his most recent book, Growing a Revolution: Bringing Our Soil Back to Life, which describes his experiences visiting farms around the world as a MacArthur Fellow and explores practices that help restore soil health and fertility.
He also is the author of Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations and The Hidden Half of Nature: The Microbial Roots of Life, co-written with Anne Biklé.
The Pesek Colloquium on Sustainable Agriculture honors John Pesek, a former head of the Department of Agronomy, who died Feb. 11. There will be an observance of his life at the colloquium.
Pesek was world renowned for his role in the 1989 National Academy of Sciences Report on Alternative Agriculture. Pesek earned his doctorate from North Carolina State and his bachelor’s degree in agricultural education and master’s in agronomy at Texas A&M University.
Sponsors for the colloquium include the: Department of Agronomy, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Department of Geological and Atmospheric Sciences, Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture, MFA Program in Creative Writing and Environment, Pearl Hogrefe Fund, Department of Sociology, University Library, Wallace Chair in Sustainable Agriculture, Committee on Lectures (funded by Student Government).