When Environmental Challenges and Development Collide

Robert L. Plavnick Lecture in Urban + Environmental Planning

Campbell 153

11.10.25

5PM

Preserve your forests from destruction, and protect your country from floods and drought / J. Keppler — Joseph Ferdinand Keppler, **Preserve your forests from destruction, and protect your country from floods and drought**, illustration from Puck, v. 14, no. 357, January 9, 1884. Published by Keppler & Schwarzmann. https://www.loc.gov/item/2012645164/.

When Environmental Challenges and Development Collide
Lawrence S. Bacow
President Emeritus, Harvard University

Mon, Nov 10, 5PM
Campbell 153

Lawrence S. Bacow, Harvard President Emeritus, systems thinker, and expert in environmental negotiation draws on decades of leadership in higher education and public policy, including his role as cofounder of MIT’s Center for Real Estate, to explore the tensions and opportunities between environmental stewardship and development.

This event will be recorded and made available on the School of Architecture's YouTube Channel.

About the Speaker

Lawrence Bacow

Lawrence S. Bacow is President Emeritus and Professor of Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School. Bacow served as the 29th president of Harvard University from 2018 to 2023. Widely recognized as one of higher education’s most respected leaders, Bacow’s tenure at Harvard was marked by the creation of a range of academic initiatives, advocacy for public service, diversity and access to opportunity, and steady leadership of the university through the COVID-19 pandemic. Prior to joining Harvard, Bacow was President of Tufts University from 2001 to 2011. During his tenure, he advanced the university’s commitment to excellence in teaching, research, and public service and fostered collaboration across the university’s eight schools. Before his time at Tufts, Bacow spent 24 years on the faculty of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he held the Lee and Geraldine Martin Professorship of Environmental Studies. He served as the elected Chair of the Faculty (1995-97) and then as Chancellor (1998-2001), one of the institute’s most senior academic officers.

Bacow is a widely recognized expert on non-adjudicatory approaches to the resolution of environmental disputes. Bacow was co-director of MIT’s Consortium on Global Environmental Challenges and played a key role in launching and leading both the MIT Center for Environmental Initiatives and the MIT Center for Real Estate. He is the author or co-author of four books and numerous scholarly articles on topics related to environmental policy, economics, land use law, negotiation, and occupational health and safety.

Supported by the Robert L. Plavnick Endowment.