UW School of Forest Resources E-news
April 2010  |  Return to issue home

Honors and Awards

Jim Agee
Jim Agee

Jim Agee Gets Biswell Lifetime Achievement Award
Emeritus Professor Jim Agee has received the Association for Fire Ecology’s 2009 Harold Biswell Lifetime Achievement Award. Presented to fire ecologists who have worked primarily west of the front range of the Rocky Mountains, including west and central Texas, the award is named for the pioneer fire ecologist Harold Biswell, whose work was a major factor in developing controlled or prescribed burning policies that reintroduce the natural fire cycle. Agee was one of Biswell’s last graduate students at the University of California, Berkeley, where he received his Ph.D. in 1973. His work in fire ecology has included 14 years with the National Park Service and his appointment to the SFR faculty in 1978. He is the author of over 200 publications, including 1993’s Fire Ecology of Pacific Northwest Forests (Island Press). In 2007 he published Steward's Fork: A Sustainable Future for the Klamath Mountains. One of the first fire ecologists to point out that climate was probably a contributing factor to the growing numbers of wildfires, Agee, although "retired," is still active in fire ecology research and education, and  last fall participated in a PBS NewsHour with Jim Lehrer program, Washington: Warming and Wildfires, which also features SFR Research Scientist Susan Prichard, ’96, ’03.

Sally Brown
Sally Brown

Sally Brown Elected Soil Science Society Fellow
Research Associate Professor Sally Brown was recognized as a 2009 fellow by the Soil Science Society of America (SSSA) at an awards ceremony in November, 2009 in Pittsburgh, as part of the society’s annual meeting. Members of SSSA nominate worthy colleagues based on their professional achievements and meritorious service. Only 0.3 percent of the society’s active and emeritus members may be elected Fellow. Brown received a Ph.D. from the University of Maryland, and was appointed to the SFR faculty in 1999. Her research focuses on the benefits and risks associated with land application of residuals, such as municipal biosolids, composts and high calcium carbonate wastes to remediate polluted sites.

Don Hanley
Don Hanley

Don Hanley to Receive Career Leadership Award
Affiliate Professor Don Hanley will receive the Career Leadership Award from the Association of Natural Resource Extension Professionals at the association's June 2010 Annual Conference in Alaska. The award honors the association’s outstanding members and partners, as well as the educational materials and programs they have developed. Beginning in 1983 until his retirement last year, Hanley held concurrent faculty appointments at the UW and Washington State University (WSU) as professor and extension forester, a model for other SFR/WSU collaborations. He focused on developing an educational program to help non-industrial private forest landowners productively and sustainably steward their resources. The knowledge that he developed and packaged for outreach through county extension faculty, tours, demonstrations, workshops and publications, and through his work with the Rural Technology Initiative, benefitted the approximately 40,000 Washington residents who own forest land.

Sandor Toth
Sandor Tóth

Sandor Tóth Earns Forest Service Chief's Honor Award
Assistant Professor Sandor Tóth, was among the recipients of the USDA Forest Service’s Chief’s Honor Awards at a ceremony held in conjunction with the agency’s March 2010 National Leadership Council meeting in Albuquerque. Tóth is a member of a research group led by the USDA’s Northern Research Station in Minneapolis; the group received the Conserving Open Spaces Award for its project, "Protecting Habitat for Grassland Birds in the Face of Development Pressure." Tóth’s research focuses on developing quantitative decision support tools to aid forest and natural resource management.

Nalini Nadkarni, '83, Given National Science Board Public Service Award
Nalini Nadkarni, '83, was recently named recipient of the 2010 National Science Board Public Service Award as an individual who has made significant contributions in public understanding of science in the U.S. Nadkarni is a faculty member of The Evergreen State College, where her research focuses on the ecology of tropical and temperate forest canopies and the roles that canopy-dwelling plants play in whole forests. She is a co-founder of the International Canopy Network, a nonprofit organization that fosters communication among researchers, educators and conservationists. She has reached out over the years to engage nontraditional audiences, including those with limited access to science education like prisoners, soldiers and hospital patients. Her "Sustainable Prisons Project" collaboration with the Washington State Department of Corrections involves the participation of incarcerated men and women in conservation projects like the cultivation of threatened mosses, captive rearing of endangered Oregon Spotted Frogs, growing prairie plants for restoration and raising rare butterflies.

Other Honors...
Constance Millar, ’77, was one of two recipients of the USDA Forest Service Deputy Chief’s Distinguished Science Award at a January 2010 ceremony in Washington, D.C. Millar is a research paleoecologist for the Forest Service’s Pacific Southwest Research Station and a climate change specialist for the agency’s resources planning assessment process.

April 2010  |  Return to issue home