Professor Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies
70 Science Hall
550 North Park Street
Madison, WI 53706-1491
Phone: (608) 222-1139
Fax: (608) 262-2273
Hours: Tu/Th 11:15-1:00, 15 Science Hall
cbdewitt@wisc.edu


Principal Research Interests

Integrative framing of science, ethics, and praxis in the development and application of solutions to environmental issues and problems, locally and globally. Integral ecology; integrative systems ecology; intentional institution-building for ecological and economic sustainability; wetland ecosystem development and natural history of carbon sequestration in maintaining a habitable earth; limnogeology and seabed stewardship; groundwater system stewardship in relation to wetlands, lakes, municipal high-capacity wells andpublic policy; thermoregulatory systems and energy exchange across the span of individual organisms to biospheric processes; thermoregulation and physiological ecology of ectotherms in context of microclimates; local government design and administration, land stewardship; interfacing of ethical, religious, economic, business, and governmental systems toward long-term health and sustainability of the biosphere; identifying and addressing the root causes of unsustainability;soil systems, soil stewardship, and agricultural ecology; ethical motivations for landscape preservation in the lives of George Perkins Marsh, John Muir, Theodore Roosevelt, Aldo Leopold, and Rachael Carson; biblical and scientific grounding in Laudato Si' of Pope Francis; and application of ecosystem services and systems analysis to ecological and societal sustainability. See Curriculum Vitae.

Speaking Appearances

Has given major addresses at more than 100 North American colleges and universities and worldwide through travels to China, Korea, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Russia, Ecuador, the Dominican Republic, Mexico, and the United Kingdom, and most recently at the Environmental Unsustainability Conference at Cambridge University and a plenary address to the international Plants and Soils conference at McGill University, Montreal. See Curriculum Vitae.

Representative Publications

C. B. DeWitt 2015. Carbon, Climate, and Self Control. Paper presented at the seminar on Human and Natural Ecology: Economic, Political and Cultural Implications, St. Paul, Minnesota June 3-5. Sponsored by the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, United States Catholic Conference of Bishops, Center for Catholic Studies at the University of St. Thomas, and St. Paul Seminary. To be published as a book of presented papers.

DeWitt, C.B. 2012. Song of a Scientist: The Harmony of a God-Soaked Creation, Grand Rapids: Square Inch Books, 272pp. Forward by Bill McKibben.

DeWitt, C.B. 2011. Earth-Wise: A Guide to Hopeful Creation Care, 3rd edition, Grand Rapids: FaithAlive, 158pp. Forward by Joel C Hunter.

DeWitt, C.B. 2010. Sustainable Living in the Biosphere. In: Melville Y. Stewart, ed., Science and Religion in Dialogue, Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 658-670. This and the two previous publications are printed together as Part 15 of the volume and are together titled "Stewardship and Economic Harmony: Living Sustainably on Earth." These three chapters are available from Blackwell's Reference Online. They also are available in Chinese.

DeWitt, C.B. 2010. Sustainable Living in the Biosphere. In: Melville Y. Stewart, ed., Science and Religion in Dialogue, Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 658-670.

DeWitt, C.B. 2010. The Steward and the Economist. In: Melville Y. Stewart, ed., Science and Religion in Dialogue, Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 645-657.

DeWitt, C.B. 2010. Earth's Biospheric Economy. In: Melville Y. Stewart, ed., Science and Religion in Dialogue, Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 631-644.

DeWitt, C.B. 2009. Unsustainable Agriculture and Land Use: Restoring Stewardship for Biospheric Sustainability, In: Robert S. White, ed., Creation in Crisis: Christian Perspectives on Sustainability. London: SPCK Publishing, 919-928.

DeWitt, C.B. 2009. Unsustainable Agriculture and Land Use: Restoring Stewardship for Biospheric Sustainability. In: Robert White, The Root Causes of Unsustainability. Faraday Institute, Cambridge University.

DeWitt, C.B. 2008. To Strive to Safeguard the Integrity of Creation and Sustain and Renew the Life of the Earth (i). In: Andrew Walls and Cathy Ross, eds., Mission in the Twenty-First Century: Exploring the Five Marks of Global Mission, London: Darton, Longman and Todd, pp. 84-93.

DeWitt, C.B. 2008. Science, Scripture, and Con-serving Creation, In Holy Ground: A Gathering of Voices on Caring For Creation. San Francisco: Sierra Club Books, pp. 74-88.

DeWitt, C.B. 2009, in press. Unsustainable Agriculture and Land Use: Restoring Stewardship for Biospheric Sustainability. In: Robert White, The Root Causes of Unsustainability. Faraday Institute, Cambridge University.

DeWitt, C.B. 2008. Reading the Bible Through A Green Lens, In The Green Bible: New Revised Standard Version. San Francisco: Harper One, pp. I-25 -I-34.

DeWitt, C.B. 2008. Inspirations for Sustaining Life on Earth: Greeting Friends in Their Andean Gardens, In Bill McKibben, American Earth: Environmental Writing Since Thoreau. New York: Library of America, pp. 920-928.

DeWitt, C. B. 2007. The Professor and the Pupil: Addressing Secularization and Disciplinary Fragmentation in Academia. Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith 59(2):119-127, 2007.

DeWitt, C. B. 2007. Earth-Wise: A Biblical Response to Environmental Issues, 2nd ed. Grand Rapids: CRC Publications.

DeWitt, C.B. 2006. The scientist and the shepherd: the emergence of evangelical environmentalism. In Robert Gottlieb, Oxford Handbook of Religion and Ecology, Oxford University Press, pp. 568-587.

DeWitt, C.B. 2006. Stewardship: Responding Dynamically to the Consequences of Human Action in the World. In R. J. Berry, Environmental Stewardship: Critical Perspectives - Past and Present. London & New York: T&T Clark International, pp. 145-158.

DeWitt, C.B. 2002. Complementarities of scientific understanding of nature with religious perspectives of creation. In Stephen R. Kellert and Timothy Farnham, eds. Good in Nature and Humanity: Connecting Science Religion and Spirituality with the Natural World. Island Press, pp. 19-48. (Based upon an invited paper for a symposium at Yale University.)

DeWitt, C.B. 2000. Behemoth and Batrachians in the Eye of God: Responsibility to Other Kinds in Biblical Perspective, pp. 291-316. In Hessel, Dieter T. & Rosemary Radford Ruether, eds. Christianity & Ecology: Seeking the Well-Being of Earth & Humans, Cambridge: Harvard Univ. Press, 720 pp.

DeWitt, C.B. 1998. Science, ethics, and praxis: getting it all together. In John Carroll and Keith Warner, eds., Ecology and Religion: Scientists Speak. Quincy, Illinois: Franciscan Press, pp. 53-70.

DeWitt, C. B. 1997. Caring for Creation. Grand Rapids: Baker Books.

DeWitt, C.B. 1996. Biblical principles and environmental ethics. Environmental Review 3(10):10-16.

DeWitt, C.B. 1996. Community mobilization: a case study of the town of Dunn. Paper presented at Global Stewardship National Conference, October 16-20, 1996, Gloucester, Massachusetts.

DeWitt, C. B. 1995. Ecology and ethics: relation of religious belief to ecological practice in the Biblical tradition. Biodiversity and Conservation 4:838-848 (Given a John Marks Templeton Award, 1996).

DeWitt, C. B. 1992. Ethics, Ecosystems, and Enterprise: Discovering the Meaning of Development and Food Security. In: Katie Smith and Tetsunao Yamamori, eds. Growing Our Future: Food Security the Environment, West Hartford, CT: Kumarian Press, pp. 6-26.

DeWitt, C. B. 1992. Christian Colleges at an Ecological Turning Point. Faculty Dialogue 1992(16):43-58.

DeWitt, C. B. 1991. Social Structure and Ethics of Farms and Rural Communities.In: Kathleen Duffy, ed., Rural Wisconsin's Economy and Society: The Influence of Policy and Technology. Proceedings of the 1991 Conference and Workshop Proceedings, Madison, Wisconsin: Agricultural Technology and Family Farm Institute, University of Wisconsin-Madison.

DeWitt, C.B. 1989. Let it be: a wetland scientist and restorationist reflects on the value of waiting. Restoration and Management Notes 7(2):80-81.

Heliotis, Francis and C. B. DeWitt. 1987. Rapid water table responses to rainfall in a northern peatland ecosystem. Water Resources Bulletin 23:1011-1016.

Heliotis, Francis, and C.B. DeWitt. 1987. Rapid water table responses to rainfall in a northern peatland ecosystem. Water Resources Bulletin 23:1011-1016.

Heliotis, Francis and C. B. DeWitt. 1987. Impact of domestic wastewater on Thuja occidentalis in a northern Michigan swamp. In: Ladderman, A. D., ed. Atlantic White Cedar Wetlands. Westview Special Studies in Natural Resources and Energy Management, Westview Press, pp. 289-292.

Heliotis, Francis, and C.B. DeWitt. 1987. Rapid water table responses to rainfall in a northern peatland ecosystem. Water Resources Bulletin 23:1011-1016.

Kratz, Timothy K., and C.B. DeWitt. 1986. Internal factors controlling small peatland-lake ecosystem development. Ecology 67:100-107.

Winkler, Marjorie, and C.B. DeWitt. 1985. Environmental impact of peat mining: documentation for wetland conservation. Environmental Conservation 12(4):317-330.

Heliotis, Francis and C. B. DeWitt. 1983. A conceptual model of nutrient cycling in wetlands used in wastewater treatment: a literature analysis. Wetlands 3:124-152.

DeWitt, C. B. 1981. Waubesa Wetlands: a case study of local wetlands preservation. In: Richardson, Brandt, ed. Selected Proceedings of the Midwest Conference on Wetland Values and Management. St. Paul, MN: Minnesota Water Planning Board, University of Minnesota Water Resources Research Center, Upper Mississippi River Basin Commission and Great Lakes Basin Commission, pp. 491-501.

Kratz, Timothy K., Marjorie Winkler, and C. B. DeWitt. 1981. Hydrology and chronology of a peat mound in Dane County, southern Wisconsin. Transactions of the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters 69:37-45.

DeWitt, C. B., and Robert M. Friedman. 1979. Significance of skewness in ectotherm thermoregulation. American Zoologist 19:195-209.

Friedman, Robert M. and C. B. DeWitt. 1978. Wetlands as carbon and nutrient reservoirs: a spatial, historical, and societal perspective. In: Greeson, Phillip E., John R. Clark, and Judith E. Clark, eds. Wetland Functions and Values: the State of Our Understanding. Minneapolis, Minnesota: Amer. Water Resources Assoc., pp. 175-185.

DeWitt, C. B. and Eddie Soloway, eds. 1978. Wetlands: Ecology, Values, and Impacts. Madison, Wisconsin: Institute for Environmental Studies, University of Wisconsin, 388 pp.

Friedman, Robert M. and C. B. DeWitt. 1978. Wetlands formation: spatial modeling of lake-edge wetlands development. In: C. B. DeWitt and Eddie Soloway, eds. Wetlands: Ecology, Values, and Impacts. Madison, Wisconsin: Institute for Environmental Studies, University of Wisconsin, pp. 232-241.

DeWitt, C. B. 1975. A model for prediction of world food production and allocation. Simulation 25:65-80.

Porter, Warren P., John W. Mitchell, William A. Beckman, and C. B. DeWitt. 1973. Behavioral implications of mechanistic ecology: thermal and behavioral modeling of desert ectotherms and their microenvironment. Oecologia 13:1-54.

DeWitt, C. B. 1971. Postural mechanisms in the behavioral thermoregulation of a desert lizard, Dipsosaurus dorsalis. Journal de Physiologie (Paris) 63:242-245.

DeWitt, C. B. 1970. Ecological stewardship. The Banner. 1970(Nov.6): 4-5.

DeWitt, C. B. 1968. Verhaltensweigen regeln die Korpetemperatur bei einer Wustenechse. Umschau in Wissenschaft und Technik 1968:809.

DeWitt, C. B. 1967. Precision of Thermoregulation and its relation to environmental factors in the desert iguana, Dipsosaurus dorsalis. Physiological Zoology 40:49-66. (Listed in Early Classics in Biogeography, Distribution, and Diversity Studies: 1951 to 1975 -- "primary sources . . . that have most affected the evolution of our thoughts on the geographical and ecological distribution and diversity of life.")

DeWitt, C. B. 1967. Behavioral thermoregulation in the desert iguana. Science 158:809.