Ecological Society of America announces 2017 Fellows

RELEASE DATE: Monday, 6 February 2017

Contacts: Liza Lester, 202-833-8773 ext. 211, gro.asenull@retseLL; Julia Marsh, 202-833-8773 ext. 224, gro.asenull@ailuJ; Alison Mize, 202-833-8773 ext. 205, gro.asenull@nosilA

WASHINGTON, DC – The Ecological Society of America (ESA) is pleased to announce its 2017 Fellows. The Society’s fellowship program recognizes the many ways in which its members contribute to ecological research and discovery, communication, education and pedagogy, and management and policy.

Fellows are members who have made outstanding contributions to a wide range of fields served by ESA, including, but not restricted to, those that advance or apply ecological knowledge in academics, government, non-profit organizations, and the broader society. They are elected for life.

Early Career Fellows are members within 8 years of completing their doctoral training (or other terminal degree) who have advanced ecological knowledge and applications and show promise of continuing to make outstanding contributions to a wide range of fields served by ESA. They are elected for five years.

ESA established its fellows program in 2012 with the goal of honoring its members and supporting their competitiveness and advancement to leadership positions in the Society, at their institutions, and in broader society. Past ESA Fellows and Early Career Fellows are listed on the ESA Fellows page.

Fellows elected in 2017 in recognition of their contributions to the science of ecology:

David Ackerly, Professor, Department of Integrative Biology, University of California, Berkeley
Elected for pioneering the integration of phylogenetic methods into ecology to generate new understanding of the evolutionary processes that contribute to the ecological function and community assembly of plants.

Anurag Agrawal, Professor, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Cornell University
Elected for innovative contributions to community and evolutionary ecology, especially through providing conceptual advances and rigorous experimental work on plant-insect interactions.

Priyanga Amarasekare, Professor, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Los Angeles
Elected for distinguished contributions to theoretical ecology, particularly our understanding of the spatial and temporal dynamics of populations and communities.

Steven I. Apfelbaum, Chairman and Senior Ecologist, Applied Ecological Services, Inc.
Elected for contributions to innovative, successful ecological research, restoration and conservation projects in the Americas.

Martyn M. Caldwell, Emeritus Professor, Ecology Center, Utah State University
Elected for pioneering research in physiological plant ecology, including environmental photobiology and resource acquisition, and for exemplary service to the scientific community worldwide.

Bradley J. Cardinale, Professor and Director, Cooperative Institute of Limnology & Ecosystems Research, School of Natural Resources & Environment, University of Michigan
Elected for seminal experiments, data syntheses, and theory to understand the consequences of biodiversity loss for ecosystem goods and services.

Carmen R. Cid, Professor, Ecology; Dean, School of Arts and Sciences, Eastern Connecticut State University
Elected for her ESA leadership and contributions enhancing ecology education outreach to diverse audiences, recruitment and retention of women and minorities in ecology, and applying ecological principles to improve undergraduate liberal arts education.

Emmett Duffy, Director, Tennenbaum Marine Observatories Network, Smithsonian Institution
Elected for innovation in development of ecological networks and analyses to tackle ecological questions at hitherto inaccessible scales and for significant contributions to building the conceptual and empirical research to link biodiversity to ecosystem functioning.

Jennifer A. Dunne, Professor and Vice President for Science, Santa Fe Institute
Elected for deep and central contributions to the theory of food web analyses, including extension to paleo food webs.

David M. Eissenstat, Professor, Woody Plant Physiology, Penn State University
Elected for major contributions towards understanding belowground processes and interactions among plants, microbes, environmental factors, and agricultural practices.

Exequiel Ezcurra, Director, University of California Institute for Mexico and the United States; Professor, Department of Botany and Plant Sciences, University of California, Riverside
Elected for long-time leadership in bringing together research, outreach, education, management, and policy in the creation of natural protected areas and the development of conservation programs.

Monica A. Geber, Professor, Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, Cornell University
Elected for major contributions to the study of plant reproductive ecology, with a strong population, community, and evolutionary perspective. Her work has been highly influential because of its grounding in natural history, rigor, and very strong theoretical basis.

Leah R. Gerber, Professor, School of Life Sciences; Director, Center for Biodiversity Outcomes, Arizona State University
Elected for pioneering efforts in marine ecology that connect conservation science to tenable decision tools and policy.

Nick M. Haddad, Professor, Department of Applied Ecology, North Carolina State University
Elected for his research to apply ecology theory to conservation and land management, including pioneering experimental tests of habitat fragmentation and conservation corridors, and with conservation and recovery of endangered butterflies.

Feng Sheng Hu, Professor, Department of Plant Biology and Department of Geology, University of Illinois
Elected for paradigm-shifting research in paleoecology and important contributions to understanding climate change and ecological impacts, particularly in arctic and boreal regions.

Raymond B. Huey, Emeritus Professor, Department of Biology, University of Washington, Seattle
Elected for foundational work on thermal sensitivity of ectotherms and its links to the ecological and evolutionary impacts of climate change.

Travis E. Huxman, Professor, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology; Director, Center for Environmental Biology, University of California, Irvine
Elected for advancing our understanding of plant ecophysiology, with fundamental work on the ecology and evolution of functional traits in plants, effects of climate change on ecosystems, and factors influencing restoration and conservation.

Richard Karban, Professor, Department of Entomology and Nematology, University of California, Davis
Elected for pivotal work in developing an ecological understanding of plant-herbivore interactions, with particularly notable contributions to the ecology of induced plant responses to herbivory and plant volatile signaling.

William K. Lauenroth, Professor in the Practice, Forestry & Environmental Studies, Yale University
Elected for visionary leadership, outstanding service, and major scientific contributions to the understanding of rangeland ecology, for excellence in mentoring students, and for translation of science to practice.

Matthew A. Leibold, Professor, Department of Integrative Biology, University of Texas, Austin
Elected for his many outstanding contributions, both empirical and theoretical, to our understanding of the dynamics of ecological communities and metacommunities and the ecology of aquatic food webs.

Jennifer B. H. Martiny, Professor, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Irvine
Elected for advancing our understanding of the community ecology of microorganisms by bridging the fields of ecology and microbiology and developing the new field of microbial biogeography.

Mark A. McPeek, Professor, Department of Biological Sciences, Dartmouth College
Elected for his many outstanding contributions to our understanding of the ecological and evolutionary processes responsible for the structure of ecological communities.

Russell Monson, Professor, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and the Laboratory of Tree Ring Research, University of Arizona
Elected for his contributions to seminal discoveries in the areas of plant adaptation, biogeochemical cycling, and ecosystem-atmosphere gas exchange. His work has clarified patterns of C4 photosynthesis evolution, soil organic nitrogen uptake by plants, forest carbon cycling, and the exchange of volatile organic compounds between ecosystems and the atmosphere.

Peter B. Reich, Professor, Department of Forest Resources, University of Minnesota
Elected for his discovery of universal scaling rules in plant design and physiology, across scales from seedlings to the globe, that provide mechanistic insight into human-caused environmental change.

Melinda D. Smith, Professor, Department of Biology, Graduate Degree Program in Ecology, Colorado State University
Elected for her seminal contributions to understanding environmental drivers of grassland community structure through field experiments, cutting-edge genomics, and collaborative synthesis.

John J. Stachowicz, Professor, Department of Evolution and Ecology, University of California, Davis
Elected for his fundamental contributions to the fields of symbiosis and mutualism, multi-trophic species interactions, biogeography, and invasion biology.

D. Lawrence Venable, Professor, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Arizona
Elected for revolutionary work on plant community ecology and life history evolution, exemplifying the power of crossing temporal and spatial scales, mixing empirical and theoretical approaches, and integrating inquiries from physiology to evolutionary dynamics.

Early Career Fellows (2017 – 2021) elected for advancing the science of ecology and showing promise for continuing contributions:

Colleen M. Iversen, Senior Staff Scientist, Climate Change Science Institute and Environmental Sciences Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Elected for her leadership and creativity in linking experimentation and modeling to advance ecological understanding of the influence of fine plant roots on the fate of vast pools of carbon and nutrients held in the soils of diverse biomes.

Alex Perkins, Eck Family Assistant Professor, Department of Biological Sciences and Eck Institute for Global Health, University of Notre Dame
Elected for advancing the science of infectious disease dynamics applied to contemporary challenges such as forecasting Zika and informing malaria elimination efforts.

Cascade J. B. Sorte, Assistant Professor, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Irvine
Elected for advancing the understanding of mechanisms underlying community composition and biogeographic patterns in response to global change, especially invasion and climate change, in marine systems.

Corina E. Tarnita, Assistant Professor, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Princeton University
Elected for her fundamental insights into the understanding of pattern formation in ecological systems, from multicellularity to collective behavior in social insects to vegetation patterns in semi-arid ecosystems.

Jennifer L. Williams, Assistant Professor, Department of Geography and Biodiversity Research Centre, University of British Columbia
Elected for her outstanding research in invasion biology exploring eco-evolutionary dynamics with a combination of rigorous empirical work and mathematical models.

Chelsea L. Wood, Assistant Professor, School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences, University of Washington
Elected for her pioneering work on the response of parasite transmission to biodiversity change, including innovative contributions to disease ecology, community ecology, marine biology, and conservation science.

Elise F. Zipkin, Assistant Professor, Department of Integrative Biology and Ecology, Evolutionary Biology, and Behavior Program, Michigan State University
Elected for outstanding contributions to the fields of applied ecology and conservation biology through her work developing hierarchical statistical models to assess the trajectories, dynamics, and optimal management of wildlife populations and communities.

The Ecological Society of America, founded in 1915, is the world’s largest community of professional ecologists and a trusted source of ecological knowledge, committed to advancing the understanding of life on Earth. The 10,000 member Society publishes five journals and a membership bulletin and broadly shares ecological information through policy, media outreach, and education initiatives. The Society’s Annual Meeting attracts 4,000 attendees and features the most recent advances in ecological science. Visit the ESA website at https://ecologicalsocietyofamerica.org.