Patrick J. Webber
Professor, Department of Plant BiologyPh.D. Queen's University at Kingston, Ontario, Canada
Contact:
Department of Plant Biology
Michigan State University
100 North Kedzie Hall
East Lansing, MI 48824 USA
Office: 224 North Kedzie Hall
Phone: +1.517.355.1284
Fax: +1.517.432.2150
E-mail: webber@msu.edu
Dr. Patrick Webber has broad teaching and research interests. He is interested in what controls and regulates the diversity, abundance and distribution of plant and animal species over time.
His early training was in classical phytosociology and plant taxonomy. His doctoral work consisted of applying factor analysis to vegetation studies. Later, he and his students were among the first to make multi-layered maps using Geographic Information Systems. The mapping method they pioneered facilitates integrative management and has become a standard required by regulatory agencies in planning prior to resource development. Dr. Webber is perhaps best known as an Arctic ecologist but also has experience in the landscape ecology of managed landscapes such as those prevalent in the Midwestern United States.
Currently Dr. Webber is interested in various aspects of global change. One of his particular concerns is the need for global change research to expand from being a climate change program to include issues of resource sustainability in a changing world. At Michigan State University, Dr. Webber teaches mostly undergraduate courses in ecology, plant biology and Earth system science.
Dr. Webber has directed several large research projects: The San Juan Ecology Projects, the US Alpine Program of the International Tundra Biome Programme being just two of the many. He was the founding Principal Investigator of the Alpine Long-Term Ecological Research program of the National Science Foundation and has been director of two large university research institutions as well as a program officer at the National Science Foundation.
He has helped plan and direct many international science programs such as the International Biological Program, the Comité Arctique International Revegetation Program, the International Tundra Experiment (ITEX) of the Man, the Biosphere Programme of UNESCO, and the National Science Foundation Arctic System Science Program. Dr Webber is currently the President of the International Arctic Science Committee (IASC) and serves as the U.S. representative to the IASC Council.