March 27, 2015, Carlinville, IL — On April 8, Blackburn College will host the 3rd annual Werner Lecture Series. This year’s speaker will be Jack Nawrot ’72, Senior Scientist at the Cooperative Wildlife Research Laboratory at Southern Illinois University–Carbondale. Narwot will present Mined Land Restoration-Opportunities for Wildlife Habitat Enhancement. The presentation will be held April 8 at 7:00pm in the Olin Lecture Hall on the Blackburn campus. Nawrot’s presentation is free and open to the public.
Following graduate studies at SIUC in 1974, Nawrot began a 40 year career with Dr. Willard D. Klimstra’s ’39 Wildlife Research Lab. Nawrot has advised more than more than 40 graduate students whose research interests included mine soils geochemistry, vegetation succession on mine lands, wetland development, stream restoration, and wildlife utilization of mined land habitats. Research demonstration projects implemented at Midwest mine sites in collaboration with state and federal regulatory and natural resource agencies have received US Department of Interior and state reclamation awards. Collaboration with reclamation professionals from Germany, Poland, the Czech Republic, China, UK, and Canada promoted the sharing of mined land reclamation principles and practices that had been initiated at, and implemented by, SIUC’s Wildlife Lab for more than 65 years. Jack has served as President of the American Society of Mining and Reclamation, Chairman of the Illinois Surface Mining Advisory Council, and Chairman of Illinois Department of Natural Resources Oil and Gas Task Force. To recognize the achievements of the Wildlife Lab’s founder and provide graduate research opportunities, Jack helped establish the W. D. Klimstra Reclamation Fellowship at SIUC.
The Dr. William E. and Grace M. Werner Lecture Series was created in 2011 and made possible by an endowed gift from Dr. Herman ‘56, and Marlene Brockman ’57, of Congerville, Illinois. Werner was a key instructor, mentor and advisor during the Brockmans’ undergraduate years, and provided the basis for H. Brockman’s career as a Professor of Biology at Illinois State University. The series provides an opportunity to invite guest speakers to lecture on a topic in the natural sciences and meet with students and faculty in the natural sciences.