Westminster Biology Seminar to Reveal Rainforest Secrets of Life

Dr. Clarence Harms, Westminster College professor of biology Emeritus, will present a Biology Department Seminar Thursday, Sept. 30, at 7 p.m. in Phillips Lecture Hall located in the Hoyt Science Resources Center.

 "My illustrated lecture will explore the requirements for both the temperate rainforest of the Tongass National Forest in Alaska and the tropical rainforest of Amazonia in Ecuador," Harms said.  "What we know about them and how we act to preserve them will change the future of these havens of biodiversity.  Rainforests of the world, without doubt, affect the quality of life in all the rest of our planet.  Every breath of air we take has some molecules of oxygen that came to us from these rainforests!"

"Tropical rainforests, often called jungles, occupy six to seven percent of the earth's surface but support more than half of the earth's plant and animal species.  By estimate, 90 percent of the animal species in the rainforest are insects, and most of them are still, most likely, unknown to science," continued Harms.  "In 1900 there were 7.1 billion acres of tropical rainforest in the world.  By 2000 that number was cut in half.  Worldwide, rainforest land the size of a football field disappears each second."

Harms was a Fulbright scholar in Pakistan, and has received several awards as an outstanding faculty member at Westminster College for his ability to motivate students.  He has led numerous travel classes in marine biology, and during his distinguished career at Westminster, he has been department chair as well as vice president for academic affairs and dean of the college.  He was elected to three national honorary fraternities...Phi Beta Kappa for scholarship; Sigma Xi for science; and Phi Sigma for biological sciences.  Harms has earned a number of National Science Foundation and National Institute of Health fellowships for research and advance study.

Harms earned his undergraduate degree from Tabor College, his masters from the University of Kansas, and his Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota.

For more information, contact Dr. Ann Throckmorton, chair and associate professor of biology at Westminster College, at (724) 946-7209 or e-mail athrock@westminster.edu.

Dr. Clarence Harms