The Future of Food:
Protecting Human and Environmental Health
By 2050, the earth’s population is estimated to reach nine billion which will intensify a growing food security crisis, exacerbated by current agricultural processes, climate change and economic inequality. Around the globe, there is an urgent need to improve the safety, efficiency and sustainability of the food supply chain. At the University of Washington, engineers and scientists are working across disciplines to manage the quality and quantity of food we eat and grow. Join us for the 2019 Engineering Lecture Series to learn more about their work to inform a brighter future for us all.

Gordon Holtgrieve, H. Mason Keeler Associate Professor, Aquatic & Fishery Sciences, College of the Environment

Freshwater ecosystems provide food security, energy and water to people in the Mekong River Basin. Habitat alterations, pollution, climate change and over-exploitation are putting the health and livelihood of communities at risk. Professor Holtgrieve is working in the Mekong River Basin to address how energy policy, watershed hydrology and ecosystems interact, in order to mitigate the effects of hydrologic and climatic change around the globe.

Gordon W. Holtgrieve is an ecosystem ecologist and fisheries scientist and the H. Mason Keeler Associate Professor in the School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences at the University of Washington. The Holtgrieve Ecosystem Ecology Lab (HEEL) broadly seeks to understand human dependence on freshwater fisheries around the globe, as well as biogeochemical processes that impact freshwater food webs and community-scale effects of indiscriminate fishing. His research spans the Puget Sound, Alaska and the Mekong River in Southeast Asia. Gordon and colleagues have published more than 30 scientific papers. He earned his B.S. and M.S. from Stanford University and his Ph.D. in zoology from the University of Washington.