Wes Jackson, President of The Land Institute (founded in 1976), was born in
1936 on a farm near Topeka, Kansas. After attending Kansas Wesleyan (B.A
Biology, 1958), he studied botany (M.A. University of Kansas, 1960) and genetics
(Ph.D. North Carolina State University, 1967). He was a professor of biology at
Kansas Wesleyan and later established the Environmental Studies program at
California State University, Sacramento, where he became a tenured full
professor. He resigned that position in 1976.
Dr. Jackson’s writings include both papers and books. His most recent work,
Rooted in the Land: Essays on Community and Place, co-edited with William Vitek,
was released by Yale University Press in 1996. Becoming Native to This Place was
published in 1994 and sketches his vision for the resettlement of America's
rural communities. Altars of Unhewn Stone appeared in 1987 and Meeting the
Expectations of the Land, edited with Wendell Berry and Bruce Colman, was
published in 1984. New Roots for Agriculture, 1980, outlines the basis for the
agricultural research at The Land Institute.
The work of The Land Institute has been featured extensively in the popular
media including The Atlantic Monthly, Audubon, National Geographic, Time
Magazine, The MacNeil-Lehrer News Hour, and National Public Radio's "All Things
Considered." Life magazine named Wes Jackson as one of 18 individuals they
predict will be among the 100 "important Americans of the 20th century." In the
November 2005 issue, Smithsonian named him one of “35 Who Made a Difference.” He
is a recipient of the Pew Conservation Scholars award (1990), a MacArthur
Fellowship (1992), and Right Livelihood Award (Stockholm), known as “Alternative
Nobel Prize” (2000).
Support for this event generously provided by the William T. Raymond Fund to the
Department of Plant and Soil Science,
through the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, University of Vermont.
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