
Biophilia Symposium 2025
Conference Announcement
02–03 March 2025


Penn State Faculty and Students...
Complimentary Registration Offer
Complimentary registration for the Biophilia conference is being offered to Penn State faculty and students who register by 11:59 m. on February 23. Contact Katrina Kasper (kpk5661@psu.edu) for the promotional code to complete your registration.
About
The Stuckeman School is excited to announce a groundbreaking research symposium titled “Biophilia: Designing for Animals.” This event will explore the critical role of animals in design and how our built and natural environments are shaped by more-than-human participants.
Details
Dates: 02–03 March 2025
Location: HUB-Robeson Center - Heritage Hall
Penn State University Park campus
Keynote Speakers


Doug Tallamy, T. A. Baker Professor of Agriculture in the Department of Entomology & Wildlife Ecology at the University of Delaware; Founder of Homegrown National Park
Nina-Marie Lister, Professor, School of Urban & Regional Planning & Director, Ecological Design Lab at Toronto Metropolitan University; Founding Principal of PLANDFORM
02 March Schedule
Time | Event | Speaker |
---|---|---|
7:30am | Registration | |
8:30am | Introduction | Andy Cole |
9:00am | Keynote: Nature's Best Hope | Doug Tallamy |
10:05am | But how will we know if it is what they want? | Alex Webb and Catherine Harris |
10:25am | Rewilding human habitat: Liminal space in the built environment | Meghan Mick |
10:45 am | Supporting metropolitan biota with native plant polycultures | David Hopman |
11:05am | But what about pests? | Katherine Boles |
11:25am | Playfulness in place: World-making through biophilial design | Benjamin Larsen |
11:45pm | Habitat for hard places | Halina Steiner |
12:05pm | Lunch - provided | |
1:15pm | Building with Birds: Tapping technologies to accelerate avian identification and habitat-based design learning | Josh Cerra |
1:35pm | Exploring Great Lakes restoration work: | Kevin Grieser |
1:55pm | Wilderness in Cityscape: Southern bird sanctuary project | Afrah Faheem |
2:15pm | Beyond the hive: A holistic landscape physiology approach to enhancing the health of stingless bees (Tetragonula biroi) and sustainable beekeeping practices in Bacnotan, La Union | Frederick Delavin |
2:35pm | Student Video | |
2:50pm | Considering One Health in the urban floodplain communities in Peru’s Amazon rainforest | 2025 One Health Scholars: Tyler Atkinson, Alexis Coyle, Shanu Gopinathan, Rida Hamid, Ankita Karmakar, Isabelle Rodemaker |
3:00pm | Break/walk to Borland Building | |
4:00pm [in Borland Project Space] | Expanding the Tres Comunidades Un Rio Exhibition: A workshop exploring how humans, animals, and ecosystems in the urban Amazonian floodplain can support each other’s One Health | Leann Andrews, Rebecca Bachman, Ursula Valdez, Kathleen Wolf |
5:00pm | Exhibition Reception (Refreshments provided) |
Exhibition
The symposium will connect with the international exhibition, "Tres Comunidades, Un Río: Life within Peru’s urban Amazonian floodplains," with a reception in the Borland Project Space. The result of a collaborative research and advocacy project involving Peruvian and U.S. ecologists, photographers, landscape architects, social scientists, public health researchers, and community members, "Tres Comunidades, Un Río" reveals stories of relocation, biodiversity, One Health, connections to nature, and strength of community of those humans and animals under threat in the urbanizing Amazon Rainforest.

Reception
Date: 02 March 2025
Time: 5pm
Location: Borland Project Space
Borland Building
03 March Schedule
Time | Event | Speaker |
---|---|---|
8:00am | Register | |
9:00am | Keynote | Nina-Marie Lister |
10:05am | Changed beasts changing | Katherine Boles |
10:25am | A framework for implementing burrowing crab communities into tidal wetland restorations to promote ecosystem development | Shelby Rinehart |
10:45am | Integrating non-human habitats into architectural design: The case of bird nest facades in Louisiana | Angelina Nguyen |
11:05am | Using archaeology to trace the ecological legacy of human-modified landscapes through time | William Vuyk |
11:30am | Lunch - provided | |
1:00pm | Place theory in the Chesapeake Bay watershed: Understanding human-animal-environment relationships in a One Health approach to pollution mitigation | Jennie Ryan-Gisewhite |
1:20pm | A co-living habitat: Designing ecosystem for human and wildlife interaction at Cherry Springs State Park | Yasaman Ghaffarian |
1:40pm | Living shorelines for coastal resilience and habitat enhancement in the Delaware estuary | Jessica Klinkam |
2:00pm | The uninviting window: Bird-safe design and the ethics of deterrence | Richard Fadok |
2:20pm | Vertical Climbing Textures: An alternative wildlife crossing solution for small animals | Po-Ching Wang, Horng-Shiann |
3:00pm | Conclusion |
Registration Details
- Early Bird Registration (by Jan. 15, 2025): $300 for professionals, $150 for students. There are 20 free registrations for students (student ID required). FCFS.
- Regular Registration (after Jan. 15, 2025): $350 for professionals, $175 for students
- Registration Includes: Access to all presentations and conference materials.