The Science Lecture Series at Otterbein University was established in 1987 under the leadership of Dr. Philip Barnhart, Chair of the Department of Physics and Astronomy, and Dr. Jerry Jenkins, Chair of the Department of Chemistry. The George W. and Mildred K. White Science Seminar Fund sponsors the annual scientific seminars. Through these seminars, national leaders in science and technology share their insights about the future of scientific endeavor.
2025 Science Lecture: Psychology and Climate Change
Speaker: Dr. Susan Clayton
Public Lecture: Thursday, January 30, 6 p.m.
Location: Riley Auditorium, Battelle Fine Arts Center
This talk will review several ways in which psychological research and expertise can help us to understand reactions to climate change and encourage more positive responses. Clayton will discuss how to better understand the ways in which people perceive the risks of climate change, the ways in which climate change threatens psychological well-being and undermines social justice, and how behavioral interventions can be used to encourage adaptive responses.
About Dr. Susan Clayton
Susan Clayton, Ph.D., is the Whitmore-Williams Professor and Chair of Psychology at the College of Wooster in Ohio. Her research examines people’s relationship with the natural environment, how it is socially constructed, and how climate change affects mental health and well-being. She is author or editor of six books, including Identity and the Natural Environment, Conservation Psychology, and Psychology and Climate Change, and is currently the editor of the Cambridge Elements series in Applied Social Psychology. A fellow of the American Psychological Association and the International Association of Applied Psychology, she was a lead author on the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
Dr. Susan Clayton
About the George W. & Mildred K. White Science Lecture Series at Otterbein
Established in 1987, the George W. and Mildred K. White Science Lecture Series at Otterbein University sponsors annual scientific seminars that bring national leaders in science and technology to campus to share their insights about the future of scientific endeavor. Past speakers have included Dr. Robert Grubbs, 2005 Nobel Laureate in Chemistry; Dr. Tina Henkin, 2006 winner of the National Academies of Science Pfizer Prize; Dr. Steven Pinker, Harvard professor and renowned experimental psychologist; Dr. Andrea Ghez, an international expert in observational astrophysics; Dr. Sean B. Carroll, a leading voice of evolutionary science in the U.S.; animal behaviorist Dr. Steve Nowicki; and Nobel Prize-winning physicist Dr. William D. Phillips.