Robert L. Thayer, Jr., FASLA

University of California, Davis California, U.S.A

"Information is Information, not Matter or Energy: The Changing Impact of Technology on the Physical Environment."

Robert Thayer lives in Village Homes, a solar community in the Putah-Cache watershed district of the Sacramento Valley Bioregion in California. He is a Professor of Landscape Architecture at the University of California, Davis, and has been involved in research, teaching, and professional practice for 28 years. He is a Fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects, a licensed landscape architect in California, and a former chairperson of the Department of Environmental Design at UC Davis. Professor Thayer¹s professional and intellectual focus has been on the relationship between the ecological function, human perception, regenerative systems, and technological dimensions of the landscape. A frequent contributor to academic and professional journals, Professor Thayer has received nine ASLA awards for his research and writing since 1978, including the ASLA Presidential Award of Excellence in 1994 for his book, Gray World, Green Heart: Technology, Nature and the Sustainable Landscape. He is currently writing a second book under contract to the University of California Press entitled LifePlace: A Bioregional Approach to Planning, Education, and Stewardship.