Distinguished Faculty Lecture Series

I am pleased to invite you to the 43rd Hofstra University Distinguished Faculty Lecture, which will be presented by Robert Brinkmann of the Department of Geology, Environment and Sustainability. Professor Brinkmann’s lecture, titled “Arsenic to Zinc: Understanding Pollution Around Us,” will be delivered on Wednesday, April 10, 2013, 11:15 a.m.-12:40 p.m., at the Leo A. Guthart Cultural Center Theater, located on the first floor of the Joan and Donald E. Axinn Library, South Campus.

Robert Brinkmann is professor of sustainability studies in the Department of Geology, Environment and Sustainability, and is the first director of Hofstra’s Sustainability Studies Program. He is also the director of sustainability research at our National Center for Suburban Studies.

Professor Brinkmann earned a B.S. from the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh, with a focus on lithology, mineralogy, and field geology. He also holds an M.S. in geology and a Ph.D. in geography from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. During this period,  Dr. Brinkmann worked in diamond exploration, ice crystallography, and soil chemistry, and he developed an interest in sustainability issues. He found the surface of the world so altered that it was difficult to obtain undisturbed samples for detailed analyses.  He enrolled in courses with the late Forest Stearns, one of the first ecologists to call for research on urban ecosystems, and the late Robert Eidt, a soil scientist noted for his definition and interpretation of anthrosols, or humanly modified soils.

In 1990 Dr. Brinkmann became an assistant professor at the University of South Florida  (USF), full professor in 2000, and the first chair of USF’s Department of Environmental Science and Policy. He also served as chair of their Department of Geography and as interim associate dean for faculty development. His first publication, on the formation of the Berlin Rhyolite, was published in 1982, and he is the author of several dozen articles and book chapters as well as three books, including Urban Sediment Removal: The Science, Policy, and Management of Street Sweeping (with Graham Tobin).

He is vice chair of the board of the National Cave and Karst Research Institute and co-editor of Southeastern Geographer. He is an associate editor for the Journal of Cave and Karst Studies and editor of Suburban Sustainability. Dr. Brinkmann has sat on the Tampa/Hillsborough Human Rights Task Force, which seeks to protect the human rights of all citizens in the Tampa region. He was recently appointed the commissioner of environmental affairs for the Village of Manorhaven, New York.

In this lecture, Dr. Brinkmann will discuss his research on the distribution of soil and sediment pollution in cities and suburbs.

President Rabinowitz and I look forward to joining you at this lecture.

Herman A. Berliner, Ph.D.
Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs