New edition of the Ramon Margalef Forum at the Faculty of Biology, with the biologist and activist Marten Scheffer

Marten Scheffer, professor at Wageningen University & Research (The Netherlands) and member of the Resilience Alliance — a group of ecologists, economists and specialists in organizational dynamics — has received the Ramon Margalef Prize in Ecology for his contribution to the theory of alternative states and sudden changes in ecosystems.

A scientific forum in tribute to Professor Margalef

The Ramon Margalef Forum, an initiative of the Ecology Section of the Department of Evolutionary Biology, Ecology and Environmental Sciences of the UB in collaboration with the Catalan Government, is organized every year at the Faculty of Biology. Its aim is to facilitate dialogue and scientific debate between the awardees of the prize inspired by Professor Margalef —the first Professor of Ecology in Spain— and the students of the Faculty of Biology who study subjects related to the environment.

The new edition of the Forum, entitled "The future of humans transiting through Global Change. What Ecology can tell us", will be chaired by Rosina Gironès, dean of the Faculty of Biology and Santi Sabaté, director of the Department of Evolutionary Biology, Ecology and Environmental Sciences. The conference will include the colloquium "How Ecology can help to get through the changes", with the participation of the awardee Marten Scheffer; Núria Bonada, professor at the Faculty of Biology and the Institute for Research on Biodiversity (IRBio) and head of the research group Freshwater Ecology, Hydrology and Management (FEHM) of the UB; Professor Jordi Solé, from the Faculty of Earth Sciences; Anabel Sánchez, expert from the Ecological Research and Forestry Applications Centre (CREAF), and Susana Bautista, professor at the University of Alicante.

In the afternoon session, Marten Scheffer will also participate in the meeting "The Future of Ecology" with Professor Pol Capdevila and other young researchers and experts in the field of environmental research.

The Ramon Margalef Prize in Ecology is a distinction that the Catalan Government has awarded since 2004 in memory of Professor Ramon Margalef, professor emeritus of the University of Barcelona and a reference for generations of ecologists around the world. This award recognizes scientific careers or discoveries in the field of ecological sciences that have contributed to significant progress in knowledge or scientific thought, or to the development of theoretical tools for the sound management of natural resources, land or marine ecosystems.