SWS Awards Program

Author(s):
Source: Wetland Science and Practice, 17(2):10-11.
Published By: The Society of Wetland Scientists
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1672/0732-9393(2000)017[0010:SAP]2.0.CO;2
URL: http://www.bioone.org/doi/full/10.1672/0732-9393%282000%29017%5B0010%3ASAP
%5D2.0.CO%3B2

BioOne (www.bioone.org) is a nonprofit, online aggregation of core research in the biological, ecological, and
environmental sciences. BioOne provides a sustainable online platform for over 170 journals and books published
by nonprofit societies, associations, museums, institutions, and presses.
Your use of this PDF, the BioOne Web site, and all posted and associated content indicates your acceptance of
BioOne’s Terms of Use, available at www.bioone.org/page/terms_of_use.
Usage of BioOne content is strictly limited to personal, educational, and non-commercial use. Commercial inquiries
or rights and permissions requests should be directed to the individual publisher as copyright holder.

BioOne sees sustainable scholarly publishing as an inherently collaborative enterprise connecting authors, nonprofit publishers, academic institutions, research
libraries, and research funders in the common goal of maximizing access to critical research.
Page 10
SWS Awards Program
The SWS Awards Program honors
individuals and/or institutions that have
demonstrated outstanding innovation and
dedication to wetland research and man-
agement and service to the Society. The
recipients provide an example of dedicat-
ed commitment to the field of wetland
ecology and management and protection
of a valuable resource. The following
awards will be presented at the Society’s
Annual Meeting in Québec City, Canada,
August 2000.
Award Descriptions
President’s Service Award
The President’s
Service Award recog-
nizes significant con-
tributions to the
Society and its mem-
bers. The President’s
Service Award will
be presented to the
U.S. Geological
Survey’s National Dr. Robert E. Stewart
Wetlands Research
Center in Lafayette, LA, USA, Dr.
Robert E. Stewart, Director. The National
Wetlands Research Center is internation-
ally recognized for its scientific contribu-
tions to wetland understanding, conserva-
tion, management, and outreach. This
award recognizes the Center’s contribu-
tions that have helped further wetland
science and the goals of the Society. The
National Wetlands Research Center has
been instrumental in the initiation and
continued importance of the Society’s
electronic communication tool, the SWS
Web Site (http://www.sws.org). This site
is an important communication link
among wetland scientists worldwide. The
web site provides the Society with the
ability to widely inform users about
important wetland science issues, wet-
land conferences, training, employment
opportunities, and answer queries from
individuals worldwide who are con-
cerned about science based conservation
and management of wetland resources.
The National Wetlands Research Center
has also provided assistance with another
important communication device, the
SWS Bulletin, which is sent to nearly
5,000 members and institutions world-
wide. The Center’s support and encour-
agement extends a partnership with SWS
that brings two important communication
tools to the wetland science community
and the public-at-large.
International Travel Award
The International Travel Awards pro-
vide financial assistance to wetland sci-
entists who are disadvantaged through
regional economic conditions, to enhance
their participation in Society activities.
The goal of this award is to foster partici-
pation of the international membership
through a travel grant to an annual meet-
ing and free membership in the Society
for 3 years.
Prof. Jaanus Paal Dr. Nuket Bingol
This year’s Travel Awards to attend the
Society’s annual meeting in Quebec City
go to Professor Jaanus Paal of the
Institute of Botany and Ecology,
University of Tartu, Estonia and Dr.
Nuket Bingol of the Department of
Biology, Dumlupina University, Turkey.
The Society is pleased to provide the
financial support for their attendance at
the annual meeting. Professor Paal is a
phytosociologist who has done important
work in Estonia on the biology of wet-
SWS Bulletin
land plants and the classification and bio-
diversity of Estonian wetlands. Dr.
Bingol received her M.S. at Southern
Illinois University, in Carbondale,
Illinois, USA, and her Ph.D. in Botany at
the University of Anatolia, Turkey. She is
currently a Research Assistant at
Dumlupina University in Kutahya,
Turkey.
Merit Award
The Merit Award is presented to an
individual in recognition of an outstand-
ing piece of original research, achieve-
ment, or contribution to wetland science.
The award recognizes individuals for
specific accomplishments in any field of
wetland science and management and to
inspire future effort.
Dr. James B.
Grace of the U.S.
Geological Survey’s
National Wetlands
Research Center, in
Lafayette, Louisiana,
USA will receive the
Society’s Merit
Award for 2000 in
Québec City. Dr.
Dr. James Grace
Grace is recognized
for his use of
Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) to
further our understanding of patterns of
wetland species diversity and plant com-
munity organization. SEM provides a
means to assess the relative importance
of the different processes operating on
plant communities and allows a way to
predict the response of communities to
changes in multiple environmental fac-
tors. His use of wetland systems as mod-
els to address basic questions in plant
community ecology has produced a fun-
damental shift in the way ecologists
approach studies of species interactions
and community dynamics and provides
new insights into coastal wetlands and
the factors controlling wetland plant
June 2000
SWS Awards, continued
community dynamics.
Dr. Grace received his Ph.D. in 1980
from Michigan State University in East
Lansing, Michigan, USA with a specialty
in Botany and Ecology. He has served on
the faculty at the University of Arkansas,
Fayetteville, Arkansas, USA, from 1980
to 1985. He left to join the faculty in the
Department of Botany at Louisiana State
University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana,
USA, from 1985-93. He is currently a
Senior Research Scientist with the U.S.
Geological Survey in Lafayette,
Louisiana, USA. Dr. Grace has served on
the editorial boards for a number of sci-
entific societies including Ecological
Society of America, International Society
of Plant Ecology, Society for Aquatic
Botany, and the Society of Wetland
Scientists. His published work includes a
co-edited book on Plant Competition and
67 journal articles and book chapters. Dr.
Grace’s past work has included seminal
studies that utilized Typha species as a
model system to explore general rela-
tionships between plant traits, habitat
conditions, and competitive outcomes,
assessment of specific threats to habitat
conservation in coastal wetlands of the
central Gulf of Mexico, and development
of a consensus model about the role of
competition in controlling species diver-
sity. His current research deals with
monitoring, assessment, impact, and con-
trol of invasive species.
Lifetime Achievement Award
The Lifetime Achievement Award is
presented to an individual in honor of a
distinguished and extensive career of
consistent meritorious contributions to
wetland science and management. The
award honors wetland scientists who
have achieved special distinction in their
careers through sustained contributions
to research, education, or policy in any
field of wetland science or management.
The Society of Wetland Scientists is
honored to present the Society’s Lifetime
Achievement Award to Professor Robert
G. Wetzel, Bishop Professor of Biology
in the Department of Biological Sciences
at the University of Alabama,
Tuscaloosa, Alabama, USA, at the annu-
Prof.
Robert G.
Wetzel
al meeting in Québec City. Professor
Wetzel is internationally recognized for
an inspiring career in aquatic and wet-
land science. He has redrawn the para-
digm for how wetlands influence lake
ecosystems and the functional connect-
edness of wetland and pelagic subsys-
tems. From tracing the movement and
influence of organic carbon compounds
in aquatic systems, to exploring the role
of internal gas dynamics in controlling
leaf photosynthesis, he has maintained a
diverse yet systematic assault on the bar-
riers to our understanding of wetlands.
His scientific research has consistently
led to major discoveries about the role of
the littoral zone in regulating pelagic
metabolism, the detailed interactions
among aquatic macrophytes and their
epiphytic associates, and the ecosystem
impacts of UV radiation on regulatory
metabolic compounds. His highly pro-
ductive career has also been character-
ized by the development and application
of new methodologies to elucidate the
metabolic processes controlling produc-
tivity and nutrient cycles of wetlands and
lakes.
Professor Wetzel is Past President of
the American Society of Limnology and
Oceanography, Past President of the
International Association of Aquatic
Vascular Plant Biologists, General
Secretary and Member of the Executive
Board of the International Association
for Theoretical and Applied Limnology
since 1968, a fellow of AAAS, and elect-
ed Honorary Life Member of the
Asociacion Argentina de Limnolgia, and
Page 11
has served on countless editorial and
review boards. He has a lifetime hon-
orary appointment as Erlander Professor
at the University of Uppsala in Sweden.
He has received the G. Evelyn
Hutchinson Medal from the American
Society of Limnology and
Oceanography, the Naumann-
Thienemann Medal from the
International Association of Theoretical
and Applied Limnology, and the Burnum
Distinguished Faculty Award from the
University of Alabama. Professor Wetzel
received his Ph.D. from the University of
California, Davis, California, USA, in
1962; his thesis was entitled “A compar-
ative study of the primary productivity of
higher aquatic plants, periphyton, and
phytoplankton in a saline lake.” He
served on the faculty of Michigan State
University, USA from 1965–86. He then
served on the faculty at the University of
Michigan from 1986–90 before accept-
ing the position of Bishop Professor of
Biology at the University of Alabama in
1990.
Behind his extensive list of honors and
awards is a vast body of original investi-
gations and syntheses. He is the author
of the foremost Limnology text in the
world (three editions) and the companion
work Limnological Methods (with Gene
Likens). In addition he has over a half
dozen edited books in the fields of wet-
land and aquatic ecology. He has pub-
lished over 325 scientific articles, given
226 invited lectures and seminars, has
had over 220 published abstracts of
papers given at scientific meetings, and
supervised 35 student dissertations. He
has also graciously given his time to pro-
mote scientific societies for many
decades and the development of an inter-
national scientific community of aquatic
and wetland scientists.
The Society of Wetland Scientists is
pleased to recognize Professor Wetzel’s
lifetime of commitment to wetland and
aquatic sciences, his outstanding degree
of excellence as a scientist and scholar,
and his training of a remarkable group of
graduate students who have achieved dis-
tinction in their own right.