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

Schedule coming soon!

Organizers

This year’s organizing committee includes Adam Dolezal, Alexandra Harmon-Threat, 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.