Butterflies, Landscapes and Human Dramas: Climate Science and Climate Imagination

Wednesday, April 30, 2025

12:30 PM-1:50 PM

David Velinsky, PhD, and Tatyana Livshultz, PhD, will discuss the science of monarch butterflies, shifting landscapes and the climate crisis in dialog with Barbara Kingsolver's climate novel, Flight Behavior.

David Velinsky, PhD , is a professor in Drexel’s Department of Biodiversity, Earth and Environmental Science and Senior Scientist for the Patrick Center for Environmental Research at the Academy of Natural Sciences. Velinsky has been studying the movement and cycling of carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus in estuarine and freshwater environments in the mid-Atlantic region. His work focuses on aspects of water quality and wetland ecosystem services relative to climate impacts in the Delaware and Barnegat Bays. He is a member of the Advisory Committee on Climate Change; the Toxics Advisory Committee at the Delaware River Basin Commission; and the Science Advisory Board for the State of New Jersey.

Tatyana Livshultz, PhD , is an associate professor in the Department of Biodiversity, Earth and Environmental Science at Drexel University and curator of Botany at the Academy of Natural Sciences. She studies plant diversity and evolution, specifically the evolution of plant traits that mediate interactions with insect pollinators and herbivores in the Apocynaceae, the milkweed family.

This event is a part of the Drexel Writing Festival, learn more.