Marinus Otte, professor of biological sciences, presented the guest lecture at National Taiwan Normal University for World Wetlands Day Feb. 2. His presentation was titled “Wetlands more than 40 years after Ramsar – so much more than birds.”
World Wetlands Day celebrates the anniversary of the Ramsar Convention, which has led to the protection of wetlands in about 170 countries. The Taiwanese government is moving to provide legislation that will protect wetlands and they are following the United States legislation pertaining to wetlands – the Clean Water Act of 1972.
Wei-Ta Fang of National Taiwan Normal University and the Taiwanese government invited Otte to not only be the guest speaker at the university, but also to give advice regarding the new legislation.
Otte gave two additional guest lectures during his time in Taiwan. One lecture was about developing a sustainable campus, titled “Thoughts about the Eco-Campus for Green(er) Universities,” which was co-written by Jim Barbour of University of Minnesota- Morris. Otte also presented a seminar about the work of his research group titled “What metals can tell us about wetlands – from rhizosphere processes to ecosystem quality assessment.”
In addition, Otte met with the presidents of 47 universities from Taiwan to discuss the development of a sustainable campus network around the nation. He also discussed ways of collaboration between National Taiwan Normal University and NDSU and is exploring an exchange program in which NDSU students would go to Taiwan to learn Chinese, while Taiwanese students would come here to take courses in science and science education.
NDSU is recognized as one of the nation's top 108 public and private universities by the Carnegie Commission on Higher Education.