Awards

US–IALE FOREIGN SCHOLAR TRAVEL AWARD PROGRAM
Sam Riffell, Committee Chair, Michigan State Unversity

Foreign Scholar Travel Award Information

Through the Foreign Scholar Travel program, the United States Regional Association of the International Association for Landscape Ecology (US-IALE) annually provides travel funds to landscape ecologists from foreign countries to present their research at the annual meeting. The FSTA program is not only an outreach effort, but also a mechanism that fosters international exchange about advances in landscape ecology and helps build collaborative relationships.

Foreign Scholars were selected based on several criteria: original and outstanding research in landscape ecology, financial need, and the contribution the award would make to their professional development. This year, we were pleased to grant $1000 travel awards to 2 promising landscape ecologists.

The FSTA program would not exist without the support of the US-IALE membership through donations from individuals and proceeds from the annual book auction. Generous contributions from the exhibitors have been critical to success of the auction. Please continue your support of the FSTA by participating in the book auction and patronizing the booksellers and exhibitors.

The FSTA committee for 2004 consisted of Sam Riffell (Committee Chair, Michigan State University), John Bissonette (Utah State University), Sarah Gergel (University of British Columbia), Elena Lioubimtseva (Grand Valley State University), Russell Watkins (Spectrum Mapping LLC), and Jianguo Wu (Arizona State University). Ex officio members: Eric Gustafson (US-IALE President), Mary V. Santelmann (US-IALE Treasurer).

US-IALE Foreign Scholar Travel Award Recipient

Dror Hawlena is a Ph. D. candidate in the Ecology Program at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel. Dror’s investigations of desert lizard communities has been recognized by multiple awards from the Blaustein Institute for Desert Research. Dror will be presenting a paper about the effects of human-induced landscape changes on desert lizard assemblages.

US-IALE STUDENT AWARDS

Student Award Information

The winner of the 2003 BEST Student PRESENTATION Award is Jennifer Miller of the Department of Geography, San Diego State University for her oral presentation, “A comparison of methods for incorporating spatial dependence in predictive vegetation models."

Honorable mention 2003 BEST Student PRESENTATION Award is given to Monika Moskal of the Department of Geography, University of Kansas for her oral presentation, “Harmonic analysis of natural and man made disturbances in the Yellowstone region.”

NASA MSU PROFESSIONAL ENHANCEMENT AWARDS PROGRAM
Jianguo (Jack) Liu, Chair, NASA-MSU Awards Committee

NASA-MSU Professional Enhancement Award Program Information

The NASA-MSU Professional Enhancement Awards Program is made possible by the generous support from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and Michigan State University (MSU). This program provides financial assistance to some outstanding students to attend the US-IALE meetings, where they have the opportunity to present their research and learn the latest developments in landscape ecology. The awardees are selected according to applicants’ backgrounds, experience, professional objectives, financial need, and on the merits of their abstracts for oral or poster presentations. Each awardee receives an award certificate at the meeting and a check of up to $700. The program provides not only financial support to the awardees, but also opportunities for interaction with leading landscape ecologists. At each meeting, award recipients attend a special dinner with some leading landscape ecologists. The dinner gathering is a unique experience for the students to learn, face to face, from those leaders regarding professional development.

The members of the NASA-MSU Awards Committee for 2004 are Jianguo (Jack) Liu (Chair), Jill Cruth (MSU), Garik Gutman (NASA), Susan Jones (MSU), Ed Laurent (MSU), Bill Taylor (MSU) and Julie Traver (MSU).

NASA-MSU Awardees – 2004

Scott Bearer, Michigan State University
Mary Bresee, University of Toledo
Douglas Bruggeman, Michigan State University
Henry Bulley, University of Nebraska – Lincoln
Samuel Codjoe, Unversity of Bonn, Germany
Kirsten de Beurs, University of Nebraska – Lincoln
Larry Feinstein, University of Akron
Katia Ferraz, University of Sao Paulo, Brazil
Lara-Karena Kellogg, University of Washington
Todd Kipfer, Montana State University
Kimberly Mattson, Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University
Etsuko Nonako, Oregon State University
Lance Roberts, Michigan State University
Tyler Rychener, Arizona State University
Hoski Schaafsma, Arizona State University
Alison Seigel, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
Namrata Shrestha, St. Cloud State University
Jennifer Skillen, Michigan State University
Abigil Vitale, University of Georgia
Silke Werth, Swiss Federal Research Institute, Switzerland

DISTINGUISHED LANDSCAPE ECOLOGIST AWARD

The awards committee of the US Chapter of the International Association of Landscape Ecologists is pleased to inform you that our committee recently selected Dr. Thomas Crow as this year’s recipient of the Distinguished Landscape Ecologist Award. This award is a prestigious honor given to recognize distinguished scientific contributions to the field of landscape ecology. We elected to recognize Dr. Crow for his broad intellectual leadership and his personal achievements in the science and practice of landscape ecology. Tom has been a leader in the field of landscape ecology since its inception and a central goal of his work throughout his longstanding career with the USDA Forest Service has been introducing and establishing ecological thinking in general, and landscape ecological thinking in particular, to the agency. Dr. Crow will join an impressive list of scientists whose work has helped to shape the field of landscape ecology.

Distinguished Landscape Ecologist Award Information

DISTINGUISHED LANDSCAPE PRACTITIONER AWARD

The awards committee of the US Chapter of the International Association of Landscape Ecologists is pleased to inform you that our committee recently selected Dr. Frederick Steiner as this year’s recipient of the Distinguished Landscape Practitioner Award. This award is a prestigious honor given to recognize contributions in the application of the principles of landscape ecology to real-world problems. The awards committee chose to recognize Dr. Steiner for his writing, plan-making, teaching and translating all of which emphasize the integration of the principles of landscape ecology into planning and landscape architecture. Dr. Steiner is a prolific writer and outstanding educator who has worked throughout his career to protect environmentally sensitive landscapes from urban sprawl. He joins an impressive list of individuals and organizations that have been recognized by US IALE for their efforts to apply the principles of landscape ecology to solving real world problems.

Distinguished Landscape Ecology Practitioner Award Information

OUTSTANDING PAPER IN LANDSCAPE ECOLOGY

The awards committee of the US Chapter of the International Association of Landscape Ecologists is pleased to inform you that the recent paper (Hargrove et al. 2002. A fractal landscape realizer for generating synthetic maps. Conservation Ecology 6(1) art2. Available for download at:
http://consecol.org/vol6/iss1/art2/index.html) has been selected by our committee as this year’s Outstanding Paper in Landscape Ecology. This award is a prestigious honor given annually to recognize the most outstanding contribution to the literature of the field of landscape ecology.
Hargrove, Hoffman, and Schwartz have done a profound service to the landscape ecology community by producing research that presents a new and powerful way to construct neutral landscapes and by using a Turing test to reveal the power and the limitations of their algorithm while reaching out to the broader community to demonstrate how subtle the subject of landscape ecology can be. This paper will join an impressive list of previous work that the US chapter of IALE has recognized as best representing the field of landscape ecology.

Outstanding Paper in Landscape Ecology Award Information