Dr. Balick is one of the world’s most prominent ethnobotanists, a little known branch of biological science whose practitioners study the relationship between plants and people. Nowhere is that relationship more apparent than in the world’s indigenous cultures inhabiting some of the most remote and beautiful regions of the tropics—and these are the areas Dr. Balick calls his “laboratory.” For three decades, he has worked in Central and South America, the Caribbean, the Middle East, Asia, South Asia and, most recently, on remote Pacific islands.

Trained at Harvard University, he studied under the guidance of Professor Richard Evans Schultes, a specialist in Amazonian Indians and their rainforest plants. Dr. Balick is the Vice President and Chair of Botanical Science Research and Training at The New York Botanical Garden, and Director of its Institute of Economic Botany. He spends months each year exploring fascinating ecosystems in the tropical rainforests, working with indigenous peoples in a race against time—to collect, analyze and preserve biological diversity and the traditional knowledge of its use. He shares with the audience his experience in places such as Belize and Micronesia, using slide-illustrated lectures and video footage to convey the excitement of participating in a scientific expedition. Participants will learn about how Maya healers provide health care to their communities, collecting their medicines from dwindling Central American rainforests. In another part of the world, the kings on a small island in the Pacific Ocean have asked him to assist in their fight against the loss of their traditional ways, and the tropical forests that sustain them, in the face of an overwhelming wave of Western culture and globalization. Dr. Balick will discuss how a single plant, Kava, is a powerful force in holding this particular culture together.

Dubbed “Earth Father” by NewYork Newsday for his passionate approach and dedication to conservation and ethnobotanical research, he is the recipient of the Janaki Ammal Medal of the Society of Ethnobotanists, a Fellow of the Linnean Society of London, and was recently named a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Dr. Balick has authored 15 popular and scientific books, including Plants, People and Culture, co-authored with Dr. Paul Alan Cox, and over 100 popular and scientific papers. Balick teaches at Columbia, Yale and the City University of New York, and heads an active group of students who are expanding the frontiers of ethnobotanical science.