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Lessons from the Natural World

Announcing the E.N. Thompson Forum on World Issues 2024-2025

Collage of illustrations with leaves, bugs, and birds
Lecture Archive Cooper Conversations

Lessons from the Natural World explores the beauty, wonder, and wisdom of our living planet and vast universe.

The E.N. Thompson Forum on World Issues is a cooperative project of the Cooper Foundation, Lied Center for Performing Arts, and University of Nebraska-Lincoln. It 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 debate.

We're pleased to welcome the following speakers as part of our 2024-2025 schedule:

E N Thompson Logo

Upcoming

Neil DeGrasse Tyson portrait

Neil DeGrasse Tyson

The Cosmic Perspective


Renowned astrophysicist, Hayden Planetarium director, NASA Distinguished Public Service Medal recipient and author of Starry Messenger: Cosmic Perspectives on Civilization.

$10 discount with code FORUM10 (limit 500).

Previously This Season

Ed Yong portrait

Ed Yong

The Amazing Nature of Animal Senses

With College of Journalism and Mass Communications


Pulitzer Prize-winning science journalist, 2024 Guggenheim Fellow and author of An Immense World and I Contain Multitudes.

In this engaging lecture, Yong will take audiences through the hidden realms of animal senses. With wit and humor learn the amazing ways in which animals perceive aspects of the world to which we are oblivious.

Photo contest poster with three nature photos

Photo Contest


The Lessons from the Natural World Photo Contest will feature four judged categories for K-8 students, high school students, university students, and adults, as well as a people’s choice category. Photographers are welcome to submit nature photos taken in 2024 or 2025. Winners will receive prizes related to the theme, including tickets to “The Cosmic Perspective” with Neil deGrasse Tyson on April 22! The contest closed on February 28, 2025.

Howard G. Buffett Gallery

Cooper Conversation

Conservation Photography: Witnessing Water & Wildlife


Hosted in collaboration with Global Affairs, this event will feature a panel of local photographers and storytellers showcasing the beauty and diversity of Nebraska’s ecosystems. Attendees will also tour the Howard G. Buffett Gallery, which currently features a photo exhibit on conservation. The panel will be moderated by Dr. Larkin Powell, Director of the School of Natural Resources and Professor of Conservation Biology/Animal Ecology, and will feature three panelists from Platte Basin Timelapse: Dakota Altman, Emma Balunek, and Ethan Freese.

Aimee Nezhukumatathil portrait

Aimee Nezhukumatathil

How to Fall Down into the Grass: Nature Journaling Workshop

With Nebraska Writers Collective and Lincoln Parks and Recreation


Poet, professor and author of World of Wonders: In Praise of Fireflies, Whale Sharks, & Other Astonishments, Barnes and Noble’s Book of the Year in 2020.

Amy Tan portrait

Amy Tan

A Conversation with Amy Tan

Governor’s Lecture in the Humanities, Humanities Nebraska


Acclaimed author of The Joy Luck Club, The Kitchen God’s Wife and others, including 2024’s illustrated nature journal The Backyard Bird Chronicles, a #1 New York Times bestseller.