iSEE’s Critical Conversations are forums for identifying solutions to grand challenges in sustainability.

Feeding a planet of 11 billion people, decarbonizing our energy systems, managing agriculture’s nitrogen problem, securing access to clean water — these challenges are not owned by individual stakeholders, nor can they be solved alone. They have social, political, legal, economic, and technical dimensions.

Finding solutions to these wicked problems will depend on engagement and dialogue among stakeholders who rarely find themselves at the same table. To that end, our Critical Conversations invite engineers, social and physical scientists, politicians, lawyers, industry leaders, and nongovernmental organizations to an intellectual forum for discovering solutions. These events follow Chatham House rules to be a safe space for those with very different points of view to explore commonalities.

Critical Conversations are supported by a generous gift from the Alvin H. Baum Family Fund, iSEE’s founding benefactor, administered by Joel Friedman and Loretta Namovic.

iSEE Critical Conversation 2026:

Balancing the Intended and Unintended Effects of Managing Pests

March 5-6, 2026
Illini Center, Chicago, IL

Public Keynote: Scott McArt, Cornell University

“Building Coalitions of Knowledge and Trust to Achieve Sustainable Pesticide Use in Agriculture”

5 to 6:30 p.m. Thursday, March 5

Abstract: We’re living in an age of unprecedented biodiversity loss, in part due to pesticides. We’re also living in an age when many farms are going out of business and those that remain can be risk-averse due to thin margins. And we’re living in an age of misinformation and historically low trust in science/scientists. How should this complicated landscape be navigated? This talk will discuss the role I think all of us can and should play in creating information, building trust, and shaping policies relevant to pesticides, pollinator health, and sustainable agriculture. I will use examples from my lab’s involvement in government-, industry-, and farmer-led initiatives to 1) understand risks and benefits of pesticides, and 2) implement evidence-based policies that improve pollinator health without compromising agricultural production. Common themes across each example are that success depends on building interdisciplinary coalitions of knowledge and trust, often while navigating misinformation and disinformation, and stakeholder engagement is critical at every step.

Scott McArt, Associate Professor of Pollinator Health at Cornell University, will present the opening keynote address as the public portion of the Critical Conversation. McArt, who holds degrees in biology and entomology, helps run the Dyce Lab for honey bee studies and the Chemical Ecology Core Facility at Cornell. His lab focuses on understanding how pesticides, pathogens, and habitat impact the health of honey bees and native wild pollinators.

Germán Bollero, Dean of the College of Agricultural, Consumer, and Environmental Sciences at Illinois, will give opening remarks at 5 p.m. The keynote presentation will begin at 5:30 p.m., followed by a reception at 6:30 p.m. The keynote is free and open to the public.

Critical Conversation Agenda

Organizers

This year’s organizing committee includes Adam Dolezal, Alexandra Harmon-Threatt, Basia Nilges-Latawiec, Brittany Goodrich, Elizabeth Murphy, Esther Ngumbi, Kim Erndt-Pitcher, Luis Rodríguez, Madhu Khanna, Michelle Marquart, Shadi Atallah, TJ Benson, and Sarah Fisk.