This month, ecologist Deirdre Platt ’83 and her husband, archaeologist Richard Marshall Lunniss, will lecture in Sweet Briar College’s Tyson Auditorium. Admission is free and the public is invited.

Platt and Lunniss, who live and work in Ecuador, are the mother and stepfather of Sweet Briar senior Tania Salas Platt.

At 5 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 27, Lunniss, who has a Ph.D. in archaeology from University College in London, will present a lecture titled “Man, Nature, and the Spirit World: A Pre-Columbian Ceremonial Site on the Central Coast of Ecuador.”

Tania Salas Platt (left) with her mother, Dierdre Platt.Lunniss has a bachelor’s degree in classics from the University of Cambridge and a master’s degree in science in information from Kingston Polytechnic in London. He has written a number of articles, chapters and reports in his field — pre-Columbian Ecuador and pre-Columbian landscapes — and has worked with museums in Salango, Manabi and Puerto Lopez, Ecuador.

“Among the many things that he studies [is] the evolving role of cocoa consumption in pre-Hispanic interregional exchange in Ecuador,” SBC anthropology professor Claudia Chang said, reading from Lunniss’ curriculum vitae.

Platt, who majored in environmental sciences/ecology at Sweet Briar, will lecture on “Ecophobia and Environmental Education in Coastal Ecuador” at 5 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 28. Platt also has a master’s degree in environmental sciences/ecology from Washington State University.

Platt works in environmental education in Puerto Lopez, where she does programs for TV, radio and schools, and has a weekly, hour-long show on Ecuadorian cable TV. After graduating from Sweet Briar, she was in the Peace Corps from 1985 to 1989, where she worked reforesting national parks in Ecuador. She also has worked in zoological education.

“The students are going to like her,” Chang said. “She’s a character.”

Each year, Sweet Briar’s anthropology department tries to invite an alumna or other distinguished anthropologist to speak on campus. “We do it as career networking and to let [students] have a chance to meet people who have distinguished themselves in their fields,” Chang said.

For more information about the lectures, contact Chang at cchang@sbc.edu or (434) 381-6191.