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President's Lecture Series
Launched in 1998, the prestigious President's Lecture Series has hosted several Nobel Peace Prize winners, along with other high profile speakers. Co-sponsored by Chico Performances, this community-oriented event is also sponsored by the Office of the President and the Provost's Office at CSU, Chico, as well as having several community and business sponsors.
Past lecturers have included Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (2006), Dr. Jane Goodall (2005), Robert Hass (2004) Scott Carpenter (2003), Jody Williams (2003), Oscar Arias (2002), Shimon Peres (1998), Desmond Tutu (1999), Mikhail Gorbachev (2000), Lech Walesa (2001), Oscar Arias (2002), Jose Ramos-Horta (1999), and Mary Matalin & James Carville (1998).
2007-2008 Chico Performances
President's Lecture Series Speaker:
Friday, October 5
Jean-Michel Cousteau
LAXSON AUDITORIUM | 7:30 p.m.$25 Pemium | $20 Adult/Senior | $15 Student/Child
"Cousteau inspired a groundswell of public awareness of the unique problems faced by the world's marine environments." — WETA
For more than four decades, explorer, environmentalist, educator, and film producer Jean-Michel Cousteau (son of legendary underwater explorer Jacques Cousteau) has used his vast experience to communicate to people of all nations and generations his love and concern for the Earth's water and the ecosystem it nourishes. Speaking as part of the Presidents Lecture Series and the On The Creek Lecture Series, Cousteau will use a big-screen, multi-media presentation to give an enlightened perspective on the challenges facing the world's threatened ecosystem.
Since first being "thrown overboard" by his famous father at the age of seven with newly invented Scuba gear on his back, Cousteau has been exploring the ocean realm. Cousteau spent much of his life with his family exploring the world's oceans aboard Calypso and Alcyone. After his mother's death in 1990, and his father's death in 1997, Cousteau founded Ocean Futures Society in 1999 to carry on this pioneering work.
A response to his father's call to "carry forward the flame of his faith," Cousteau's Ocean Futures Society, a non-profit marine conservation and education organization, serves as a 'Voice for the Ocean' by fostering a conservation ethic, conducting research, and developing marine education programs. Cousteau serves as an impassioned spokesman and diplomat for the environment, reaching out to the public through a variety of media. He has produced over 70 films, and been awarded the Emmy, the Peabody Award, the 7 d'Or — the French equivalent of the Emmy — and the Cable ACE Award.
Today, as president of Ocean Futures Society, Cousteau travels the globe, meeting with world leaders and policymakers, both at the grassroots level and the highest echelons of government and business, educating young people, documenting stories of change and hope, and lending his reputation and support to help energize alliances for positive change.
Through Ocean Futures Society, Cousteau continues to produce environmentally oriented programs and television specials, public service announcements, multimedia programs for schools, Web-based marine content, books, articles for magazines and newspaper columns, and public lectures, reaching millions of people all over the world.