1. Dr. Mark A. McGinley Fulbright Visiting Scholar, University of Malaya Associate Professor Honors College and Department of Biological Sciences Texas Tech University Lubbock, Texas USA mark.mcginley@ttu.edu Ecology in ASEAN Nations: Bridging Ideas, Building Talents

2. Outline Introduce myself Quick history of ecology Opportunities and challenges facing ecologists in SE Asia Building Talents Bridging Ideas

3. About Me I have conducted research in behavioral, evolutionary, and community ecology of birds, mammals, and plants. Been a faculty member at Texas Tech University since 1991

4. Science Education MS2 Masters Degree to teach middle school teachers (grades 6 – 8) how to integrate math and science in the classroom. Funded by $3 million (US) grant http://www.ttumssquare.org/ Malaysian Bat Education Adventure Collaboration between colleagues in Department of Biological Sciences, and Colleges of Education and Mass Communications Use biology of Malaysian bats as the focus for developing and integrated science curriculum for grades 4 – 8. http://www.ttu-mbea.org/

5. Informal Science Education Encyclopedia of Earth (EoE) http://www.eoearth.org/ Goal is to be the largest on-line source of information about the environment in the world. All articles written by scholars, all articles undergo peer review.

6. Teaching Ecology in the Field

8. Fulbright Program

9. Funded by U.S. government

10. Encourage understanding by facilitating exchange of scholars between U.S. and abroad

11. Professors/professionals and students

12. http://www.cies.org/about_fulb.htm

13. I arrived in June and will remain until April

14. Taught “Special Topics in Ecology and Biodiversity” at UM

19. Theory

20. Modeling tools

22. Combination of direct and indirect interactions

23. Interactions can take a long time to express themselves

25. Bring a variety of expertise together

26. Conduct Long-term studies

27. Synthesize what we have learned

30. Flora well known

31. 50 hectare Forest Dynamics Plot established in 1980.

32. Census every tree and shrub > 1 cm in diameter at breast height

33. 1982 census -240,000 stems of 303 species of trees and shrubs

34. Recensused every 5 years

35. Robin Foster and Steven Hubbell

39. Although ecological research is much cheaper than molecular biology, large-scale ecological studies still require significant funding

40. Need to fund collaborations

41. Ifscientists are going to undertake long-term studiesthen they need to be confident that funding will be available

44. Funds groups of scientists to work together over long time periods.

45. The Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) Network established in 1980

46. 26LTER sites

47. 1800 scientists/students

49. China

50. Japan

51. Korea

52. Mongolia

53. Taiwan

55. NCEAS Form “working groups” 10 visiting scientists Groups of scientists spend one or two weeks in Santa Barbara examining questions of interest. Examples of topics of working groups- Ecological response to climate change Effectiveness of marine preserves Temperate-tropical gradient in species richness Effects of introduced species

56. NCEAS Since its founding in 1995 400 projects involving over 4000 visiting scientists Over 1800 publications Many in journals with the highest impact factors http://www.nceas.ucsb.edu/products Ranked as the 22nd /38,000 environmental institutes worldwide in impact of its publications

58. We know a lot more about ecological interactions and the importance of biodiversity than we did when the United States was in a similar stage of economic development

62. Interesting systems, full of cool species

63. poorly studied

64. Understanding tropics key issue in ecology

65. Challenge

66. Lots of species to know

68. Opportunities Urban Ecology a subfield of ecology which deals with the interaction between organisms in an urban or urbanized community, and their interaction with that community.

70. Established LTER sites could provide background and logistical support needed to foster research

71. Synthesis could be valuable

72. Basic questions

75. Might require changes in organization, hiring, reward, promotion systems

76. Governments may need to help facilitate interaction among local and international scholars

77. Encourage travel and exchange

78. May require efforts beyond single governments and require a regional approach

79. Consortiums of Universities and research units

80. CU, NUS, and UM could sponsor annual synthesis meeting?

82. Generalist

83. Systematics, natural history, and ecology (including ecological theory and statistics)

84. Comfortable using tools from related fields

85. Specialist

87. Work harder, work smarter!

88. Find your niche

89. Typically are best at what you enjoy the most

90. Always present your work in context of relevant theory

91. READ!!!

92. Have to be familiar with the best scientific literature to conduct the best scientific research

93. PRESENT and PUBLISH!!!

94. “publish and prosper”

97. Localand international scientists

98. Probably great potential future collaborators sitting in this room!

99. Must be able to bridge basic and applied research

101. Advocates for the environment

102. Be a reliable and trustworthy source of accurate information about the environment for citizens and perhaps more importantly, for policy makers.

103. Ecologists in the US are often marginalized as “tree huggers”

104. We have not done a good job of educating the US public

105. Science

107. Bridging Ideas, Building Talents HI* Publish major “synthetic”papers Become “mature expert” /Expertise HI* Publish results in new areas Time Secure funding Search for opportunities Inform General Public? HI* Publish results that Inform ecological theory Attract collaborators Secure funding Search for opportunities Publish systematics Gain “expertise” in your system Publish natural history Publish species lists HI - High Impact

108. Bridging Ideas support You Knowledge of your ecological system Knowledge of environmental issues Knowledge of your system General public and policy makers Knowledge of general ecological theory Good decisions

109. Charles Darwin “I trust and believe that the time spent in this voyage … will produce its full worth in Natural History; and it appears to me the doing what little one can to increase the general stock of knowledge is as respectable an object of life, as one can in any likelihood pursue.”

110. Thanks Texas Tech University U.S. Department of State Institute of Biological Sciences at University of Malaya Conference organizing committee