The Climate Connection: Climate Change and Modern Human Evolution

About Renee HetheringtonRobert G. B. Reid

Renée Hetherington obtained a BA in business and economics from Simon Fraser University in 1981; an MBA from the University of Western Ontario in 1985; and an interdisciplinary PhD in anthropology biology geography and geology from the University of Victoria British Columbia in 2002. She was awarded a Canadian National Science and Engineering Research doctoral fellowship for her work reconstructing the paleogeography and paleoenvironment of the Queen Charlotte Islands/Haida Gwaii. The Canadian Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council subsequently awarded her a postdoctoral fellowship for her research relating climate change to human evolution and adaptability over the last 135000 years. She has been co-leader of the United Nations International Geological Correlation Program project 526 'Risks Resources and Record of the Past on the Continental Shelf'. She is CFO and director of RITM Corp. a natural resource and management consulting company. She ran for office as a Member of the Canadian Parliament in 2011 and is currently member of Shadow Caucus with the Federal Liberal Party of Canada. She is the author of Living in a Dangerous Climate (Cambridge University Press 2012). Robert G. B. Reid is Emeritus Professor of Biology at the University of Victoria British Columbia Canada. He holds B.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees from Glasgow University. His major fields of professional interest are digestive physiology malacology and evolutionary theory. He is the author of Evolutionary Theory: The Unfinished Synthesis (1985 Cornell University Press) and Biological Emergences: Evolution by Natural Experiment (2009 MIT Press). Robert Reid has taught in the fields of marine biology and comparative physiology - his major source of experience - as well as the history of biology. He has presented seminars at the Konrad Lorenz Institute workshop on Environment Development and Evolution in Altenberg Austria. Throughout his career he has worked closely with Environment Canada and the Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada. He was Chair of the Pacific Aquaculture Centre of Excellence Shellfish Committee and Chair of the Shellfish Research Group of British Columbia. He was a member of the University of Victoria Arts and Science committee on Liberal Arts Programme implementation from 1974 to 1976 and of the University of Victoria Arts and Science Dean's Advisory Committee from 1977 to 1980. He was a member of the University of Victoria Senate Committee on University Extension from 1981 to 1983 and was University of Victoria Biology Honours Director from 2000 to 2002.