Group Name: Presider: Kerry Woods, ESA Program Chair The 2007 ESA /SER Joint Meeting will feature the first “Recent Advances” lecture. With the rapid expansion of our discipline, it becomes ever more challenging to stay abreast of what's exciting and current across the field of ecology. No one can track the full primary literature of ecology, yet most of us would like to have some sense of what is current and important in areas outside our own particular expertise. The Recent Advances talks are designed to address this need by providing current, high-level synopses of timely issues, precisely for the broad community of professional ecologists. Topics will be different each year, and speakers will be selected for their capacity to offer a synthetic and up-to-date perspective for their colleagues. Guest Lecturer F. Stuart Chapin, III, University of Alaska, Fairbanks F. Stuart Chapin, III is Professor of Ecology in the Department of Biology and Wildlife at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, where he directs the Bonanza Creek Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) Program and an interdisciplinary (IGERT) program in Resilience and Adaptation. He received a BA in biology from Swarthmore College and a PhD in Biology from Stanford University. Chapin’s research focuses on ecosystem ecology and on the resilience of social-ecological systems. His ecological research addresses the consequences of plant traits for ecosystem and global processes, and focuses particularly on vegetation-mediated feedbacks to high-latitude climate warming. His research on social-ecological systems emphasizes the resilience of northern regions to recent changes in climate and fire regime, and resulting effects on ecosystem services, wages, cultural integrity, and the effects of local opinions about fire. Chapin has served on many national and international advisory boards and committees and received wide recognition for his research in both pure and applied ecology. He is an author of over 300 peer-reviewed research publications and several books, including an influential textbook in ecosystem ecology. He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2004.