The Raymond Falconer Natural History Lectures

The Falconer Lectures are the University at Albany's longest running public science lecture series that were started by Ray when he worked as site manager of the ASRC Whiteface Mountain Field Station in the early 1960's. The original lectures were held in the summer at the Marble Mountain Lodge facility and in 1973, Falconer expanded the lectures to a spring series held on the campus of The University at Albany.

At the beginning of each lecture, Ray would provide a brief weather forecast and discussion, and quickly became known as "The Dean of Weather Forecasting". Sometime in the 1970's, Gertrude S. Thompson, an environmentalist with a keen interest in weather and also a regular attendee of the Falconer lectures, became a close friend of Ray's and made a bequest and established The Ray Falconer Endowed Chair at the University at Albany.

The Summer 2023 Lecture Series

Attend in-person at ASRC's Whiteface Mountain Field Station, 110 Marble Mountain Lane, Wilmington, NY 12997
(Note: Falconer lectures start promptly at 7PM)

July 11, 2023

Scott McKim, Science Manager ASRC Whiteface Mountain Field Station & Paul Casson, Operations Manager ASRC Whiteface Mountain Field Station

"ASRC Whiteface Mountain Field Station Open House"

(Note: Join us at 6pm for light refreshments!)

Join us for an open house to showcase the important environmental monitoring that is done at the field station by Science Manager, Scott McKim. We will also have informational displays highlighting our “Common Ground in the Clouds” educational outreach. Weather permitting, we will conduct a tour of the New York State Mesonet field station, National Acid Deposition Program (NADP) site, Clean Air Status and Trends Network (CASTNET) site, and the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) air monitoring trailer. The tour will be conducted by our Science Manager, Scott McKim and Operations Manager, Paul Casson.

July 25, 2023

Leah Prudent, M.S., Department of Environmental Biology, SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry

"Ground Layer Functional Ecology Across the Montane Temperate-Boreal Climate Gradient"

The ground layer, or understory, can contain up to 90% of plant species diversity of the forest and varies with elevation (climate) and canopy cover, but most work on forest ecology and climate change focuses only on the overstory (trees). And while species diversity is important, functional diversity can illuminate key links between plant distributions and ecosystem processes across climate gradients. This talk will describe ground layer functional trait research conducted across elevational gradients on 5 mountains across the Northeastern US, and show how functional diversity in the understory can relate to ecosystem dynamics in a warming climate.

August 8, 2023

John Davis, Rewilding Advocate, Adirondack Council

"Completing Adirondack Park: Making the East's Grandest Park a Global Rewilding Success Story"

Adirondack Council's rewilding advocate John Davis will present a slideshow showing how we have largely succeeded but also what we must still do to realize the potential of New York's Adirondack Park as one of the world's first and greatest experiments in returning the land to wildlife and wildlife to the land. Davis, who also serves as director of The Rewilding Institute, will talk about the wild creatures who have recovered and those who have not yet returned, and will show how Adirondack Park can be kept viable thru wildways to surrounding wildlands and through coexistence between the people of the Park and the wildlife of the Park.

August 22, 2023

Chris Lawrence, Ph.D. Candidate, University at Albany's Atmospheric Sciences Research Center

"The Atmospheric Organic Carbon Cycle: From Air Quality to Climate"

Organic carbon is an essential building block for life, forming a vast array of complex molecular structures that exist in virtually all environments including cities, forests, lakes, streams, oceans, and the atmosphere. It is currently thought that 10,000+ different organic compounds are present in the atmosphere, existing as gases, particles, and dissolved in cloud and rain droplets. Organic compounds impact our world in several ways, including contributing to air pollution, interacting with our climate, and altering the functionality of ecosystems. Despite these large impacts, organic carbon (including methane) makes up less than 0.0002% of the Earth's atmosphere and its abundance is 200 times less than carbon dioxide. This lecture will discuss this small but critical fraction of the carbon cycle. First, we will discuss key concepts in organic carbon's role in atmospheric chemistry. Next, we will discuss its major emission sources and how it's removed from the atmosphere. Finally, we will discuss changes and trends in organic carbon (including measurements from cloud water collection at Whiteface Mountain), and what implications this could have in a changing climate.