The Fall Dialogue Series is a monthly conversation about thriving in the Anthropocene, featuring innovative thought leaders from ASU and beyond.

Dr. Gary Dirks is director of the Julie Ann Wrigley Global Institute of Sustainability, and director of LightWorks®, an Arizona State University initiative that capitalizes on ASU's strengths in solar energy and other light-inspired research. He is also the Julie Ann Wrigley Chair of Sustainable Practices and a professor of practice in the School of Sustainability and a distinguished sustainability scientist.

Before joining ASU, Dirks was the president of BP Asia-Pacific and the president of BP-China. In China, he grew BP from an operation with fewer than 30 employees and no revenue to more than 1,300 employees and revenues of about $4 billion in 2008. Dirks received China's "Friendship Award" in 2003 and received an honorary CMG (Companion of the Order of St. Michael and St. George) from the United Kingdom in 2005. In December 2008 he was recognized by the People's Daily as one of the most 10 most influential multinational company leaders of the last 30 years of China's economic development. Dirks received a PhD in chemistry from ASU in 1980.