Phyllis Graber Jensen Published on May 28, 2021
Professor Emeritus of Biology Robert M. Chute, who served on the Bates faculty from 1962 to 1992 and as the first director of the Bates–Morse Mountain Conservation Area, died April 28, 2021, at age 95.
Below is President Clayton Spencer’s statement to the Bates community.
Robert Chute reads his poetry during a reading with other poets at Bates-Morse Mountain in October 2003. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/Bates College)
Dear Members of the Bates Community,
I write with the sad news that Professor Emeritus of Biology Robert M. Chute died April 28, 2021, at age 95.
Asked whether he considered himself primarily a poet or a scientist, Bob Chute answered, “I don’t see why I have to be one or the other.” He was indeed both, a self-described “scientific poet” who won awards for his fiction writing, served as a Bates professor of biology for 30 years, and lent his voice and expertise to addressing important environment
Baker: Extraordinary people with extraordinary curiosity
Ken Baker, Ph.D.
Once upon a time, a long time ago, far, far away in a kingdom by the sea…there lived a boy who spent all his free time exploring the fields and forests around his house. Somehow, there never seemed to be enough time for hunting, fishing and just knocking about in nature.
His father was one of the most renowned physicians in the land and expected his two sons to follow in his footsteps. So one day he packaged the lad off to join his older brother at the finest medical school in the country.
Umbanhowar to deliver spring Mellby lecture on the ecology of fire
Professor of Biology and Environmental Studies Charles Umbanhowar Jr. will deliver the 2021 spring Mellby Lecture on March 16.
St. Olaf College Professor of Biology and Environmental Studies Charles Umbanhowar Jr. will deliver this year’s spring Mellby Lecture, titled “Future, Present, Past? Reconstructing the Ecological History of Fire Using Charcoal.”
The virtual talk will take place on Tuesday, March 16, at 7:30 p.m. and is free and open to the public. The lecture will be streamed and archived online.
In his lecture, Umbanhowar will explore how human actions and the natural world impact instances of fire, and vice versa. “One of the questions I will be addressing is how climate impacts fire and more specifically what combination of wet or dry years results in more burning,” Umbanhowar says. “I am especially interested in thinking about how fires have impacted the distribution of fo