USU Honors Presents 51st Annual Honors Last Lecture With Benjamin Burger

LOGAN, Utah — The Utah State University Honors Program presents the 51st Annual Honors Last Lecture featuring Associate Professor Benjamin Burger, the 2026 Honors Outstanding Professor.

Burger will deliver a lecture titled “Beyond Extinction: The Prehistoric Past and Surviving the Future” in the Russell/Wanlass Performance Hall on USU’s Logan campus from 3:30-4:30 p.m. Oct. 21.

The talk will explore how we can use the fossil and rock record to understand the fragility of life in times of dramatic change, the remarkable resilience of ecosystems throughout Earth’s history, and the meaning of this record for our shared future.

Burger is an associate professor in the Department of Water, Earth, & Environmental Sciences at Utah State University, with an interest in paleontology. He received his Ph.D. (2009) and BA (1997) in Geology from the University of Colorado and his MS (1999) from Stony Brook University in Anatomical Sciences.

He worked at the American Museum of Natural History from 1999-2004 and enjoys researching the extensive history of life on Earth through his extensive study of fossils in the American West.

He is experienced in conducting fieldwork in Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming, and he has published research on all three eras of the Phanerozoic. He is also heavily involved in science outreach, with numerous educational videos about paleontology and geology available on YouTube.

Each year, Honors students nominate tenured faculty whose teaching and mentoring have made a difference in their lives to deliver this high-profile lecture to the USU community.

A committee of Honors students interviews nominees and selects one exceptional professor to imagine and deliver what might be a “last lecture” at USU, if they had only one more to give. Burger, from USU’s Uintah Basin Campus in Vernal, is the first statewide faculty member to receive this award.

“This event engages the entire community — students, faculty, alumni, friends, and other stakeholders — in celebrating the teachers and mentors who have transformed the experience of our students here at USU,” said Kristine Miller, professor of English and executive director of the Utah State University Honors Program.

The lecture is free and open to the public and will be followed immediately by a reception in the Russell/Wanlass Performance Hall lobby. The livestream for a statewide audience and the recording of the event after its completion can be accessed from the University Honors Program website.