KINGSTON, R.I. – March 23, 2010 – Filmmaker and author Norbert Wu is the final speaker in the University of Rhode Island’s Vetlesen Lecture Series on global environmental change. His lecture, “Exploring the World’s Notable and Threatened Underwater Habitats,” is on Mar. 30 at 7:30 p.m.

Free and open to the public, the lecture will take place in Edwards Auditorium on the URI Kingston campus.

The lecture series, presented by the URI Graduate School of Oceanography and sponsored by the G. Unger Vetlesen Foundation, is a follow-up to the 2008 Honors Colloquium series that explored human-caused global change, its consequences, and potential human responses.

Wu’s writing and photography have appeared in numerous books, films, and magazines, and he is the author and photographer of seventeen books on wildlife and photography, including a children’s book series on the oceans. Exhibits of his work have been shown at the American Museum of Natural History, the California Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Sciences, and the National Museum of Wildlife Art.

Wu is the only photographer to have been awarded a Pew Marine Conservation Fellowship, the world’s most prestigious award in ocean conservation and outreach. He was named Outstanding Photographer of the Year in 2004 by the North American Nature Photographers Association, the highest honor an American nature photographer given by his peers. In 2000, he was awarded the Antarctica Service Medal “for his contributions to exploration and science in the U.S. Antarctic Program.”

For additional information, visit www.uri.edu/vetlesen
or contact the URI Honors Center at 401-874-2381 or debg@uri.edu.