Michael Pollan is the Knight Professor of Science and Environmental Journalism at the University of California, Berkeley, a former executive editor for Harper's Magazine, and a regular contributing columnist for the New York Times Magazine.

His bestselling books, The Botany of Desire (2001) and The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals (2006) and scores of articles have sparked both scholarly discussion surrounding human interaction with plants and animals and public interest in the economic, health, and ecological effects of modern agribusiness. His insights into the historical relationship between humans and domesticated plants and animals have made him a popular lecturer and his work the subject of dozens of profiles and interviews in the mass media. Pollan has been the recipient of numerous journalistic awards, including the James Beard Award for best magazine series in 2003 and the Reuters-I.U.C.N. 2000 Global Award for Environmental Journalism.

Pollan spent a week at the National Humanities Center in October 2006, during which time he lead a seminar discussion on the impact that advances in genetics research and other biosciences has had on agricultural policies in the United States. On a crisp Wednesday, October 11th, Pollan read passages from The Omnivore’s Dilemma to a standing room only audience at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill’s Morehead Planetarium and Science Center.