February 4, 2025

Thompson Forum to host Feb. 10 photo panel, contest

Several wildlife photos are seen next to a paragraph with the header "Experience conservation."

The “Experience Conservation” photo exhibition is on view in the Howard G. Buffett Gallery in Louise Pound Hall through the spring semester.

The 2024-25 E.N. Thompson Forum on World Issues will offer two opportunities in February focused on photography and nature; both are free and open to the public.

A Cooper Conversation, “Conservation Photography: Witnessing Water and Wildlife,” is 3:30 p.m. Feb. 10 at the Global Education Center in Louise Pound Hall, 512 N. 12th St. The event will begin with an open house highlighting the new exhibition “Experience Conservation” — a collection of Howard G. Buffett’s nature photos from around the world — in Buffett's namesake gallery. It will be followed by a panel discussion with three photographers from the Platte Basin Timelapse project — Dakota Altman, Emma Balunek and Ethan Freese. The discussion will be moderated by Larkin Powell, director of the School of Natural Resources. Hosted in collaboration with Global Nebraska, the event is open to all students, faculty, staff and community members. Register here.

A related Lessons from the Natural World Photo Contest will include four judged categories — for K-8 students, high school students, undergraduates and adults. There will also be a “People’s Choice” category, voted on by the public. Entrants may submit up to three images, accompanied by a brief description of what the photographer learned from the natural world and/or hopes the viewer will learn. Photographs must be original work taken in 2024 or 2025, in color, with minimal correction. Submissions close at 11:59 p.m. Feb. 28, and winners will be announced March 25. Winners will receive prizes related to the theme, including two tickets to “The Cosmic Perspective” with Neil deGrasse Tyson on April 22 and a signed copy of “The Backyard Bird Chronicles” by Amy Tan.

Questions about the event and contest should be directed to Rebecca Baskerville at rlbaskerville@unl.edu.

The 2024-25 E.N. Thompson season is organized around the theme “Lessons from the Natural World” and explores the beauty, wonder and wisdom of our living planet and vast universe. The series opened Sept. 24 with a lecture by bestselling author Amy Tan and continued Oct. 17-18 with poet Aimee Nezhukumatathil’s nature journaling workshops. The spring semester will feature “The Amazing Nature of Animal Senses” with science journalist and author Ed Yong on March 25 and “The Cosmic Perspective” with astrophysicist, author and planetarium director Neil deGrasse Tyson on April 22. Both lectures are at the Lied Center for Performing Arts, 301 N. 12th St. For more information on the series, including how to obtain tickets, click here.

The E.N. Thompson Forum on World Issues is a cooperative project of the Cooper Foundation, Lied Center and University of Nebraska–Lincoln. The series was established in 1988 with the purpose of bringing a diversity of viewpoints on international and public policy issues to the university and people of Nebraska to promote understanding and encourage discussion.