Donald Ludwig Position: Emeritus Professor Address: Mathematics Department, UBC, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z2 Office location: Ecology Hut B8 Room 120H Office phone: 604-822-2778 Fax: 604-822-6074 E-mail:ludwig@math.ubc.ca

Research Interests

My work is primarily concerned with management of resources and conservation. On the technical side, I try to correct simple assumptions and models that typically underestimate risks and foster complacency about human impact. I am also grappling with underlying attitudes and motivations that have produced disastrous results in management of resources. These are partially economic and social issues, but I think that technical difficulties are also a factor. This is especially true when substantial uncertainties are present, but decisions must be made. The economic literature on renewable and non-renewable resources would benefit more from attention to data, proper methods of inference and dealing with uncertainty. A recent paper with Walters and Hilborn led to an intense scientific discussion that was noted in a feature NY Times article.

Selected Recent Publications

• Ludwig, D., B. Walker and C. S. Holling (1997) Sustainablity, stability and resilience. Conservation Ecology 1(1).

• Ludwig, D. (1996a) Uncertainty and the determination of extinction probabilities. Ecological Applications 6(4), 1067-1076.

• Ludwig, D. (1996b) The distribution of population survival times. American Naturalist 147(4), pp. 506-526.

• Ludwig D (1995) A theory of sustainable harvesting SIAM J Appl Math 55(2) 564-575.

• Ludwig, D. (1995a) Uncertainty and fisheries management. pp 516-528 in S. Levin, ed. Frontiers in Mathematical Biology. Lecture Notes in Mathematical Biology, vol 100. Berlin: Springer-Verlag.

• Ludwig D (1994) Missed opportunities in natural resource management. Natural Resource Modeling 8(2) 111-117.

• Ludwig D Hillborn R, Walters CJ(1993) Uncertainty, resource exploitation & conservation: lessons from history. Sci 260:17 ,36.

• Ludwig D (1993) Forest management strategies that account for short-term and long-term consequences. Can.J.Forest.Res 23:563.

Mathematical Biology at UBC

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