GRANVILLE -- The Denison University Lecture Series presents National Geographic explorer-in-residence Wade Davis to discuss "The Light at the Edge of the World: Cultures on the Edge." Based on his most recent book, this convocation is set for 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday (Feb. 18) in Slayter Auditorium and is free and open to the public.

Wade Davis

Davis earned his bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees from Harvard University. In his association with the Harvard Botanical Museum, he has spent more than three years in the Amazon and Andes as a plant explorer, living among 15 indigenous groups in eight Latin American nations. He has also worked as a guide, park ranger and forestry engineer, and has conducted ethnographic fieldwork among several indigenous societies of northern Canada. Davis' work recently has taken him to Peru, Borneo, Tibet, the high Artic, the Orinoco Delta of Venezuela and northern Kenya.

Davis is the author of numerous books includingThe Serpent and the Rainbow, an international best-seller and Universal Studios motion picture. His other works are:Passage of Darkness; Penan: Voice for the Borneo Rain Forest; The Clouded Leopard; Shadows in the Sun; One River, which was nominated for the 1997 Governor General's Literary Award for nonfiction, Canada's most prestigious literary prize. He has written articles for National Geographic, Newsweek, Fortune, Conde Nast Traveler, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and several other international publications ranging from Amazonian myth and Haitian voodoo to the global diversity crisis and the traditional use of psychotropic drugs.

Davis' photographs have been widely published and his research has been the subject of more than 600 media reports and interviews throughout the world. Davis is a fellow of the Linnean Society, Explorer's Club, Royal Geographic Society and serves as executive director of the Endangered People's Project. He is a board member of the David Suzuki Foundation, Future Generations, Cultural Survival and Rivers Canada, all non-governmental organizations dedicated to conservation-based development and the protection of cultural and biological diversity. He also serves on the board of the Banff Centre, Canada's leading institution for the arts.

Davis was the host and co-writer of the Discovery Channel's "Earthguide," a 13-part television series on the environment. His other television credits include the award-winning documentaries "Spirit of the Mask," "Cry of the Forgotten People" and "Forests Forever."

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Barbara Stambaugh

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