Recognizing Excellence - Awards - IALE-NORTH AMERICA

Recognizing Excellence | Awards

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Announcing the 2022 Distinguished Awardees

2022 Distinguished Landscape Ecologist Award

Dr. Carol Johnston, South Dakota State University

2022 Distinguished Landscape Practitioner Award

Dr. David Theobald, Conservation Planning Technologies

2022 Distinguished Service Award

Dr. Kristin Byrd, USGS Western Geographic Science Center

Awards Selection Process

Nominations for the three Distinguished awards and the Outstanding Publication award are solicited annually from the membership. The Awards Committee makes decisions based on a review of submitted nominations against the award criteria described below. Nominations can be sent to the Awards Committee Chair.

2022 Awards Committee: Betty Kreakie (Chair), Jennifer Costanza, Sarah Goslee, Dan Kashian, Emily Minor, and Ilona Naujokaitis-Lewis

Foreign Scholar Travel Awards

IALE-North America supports attendance of landscape ecologists from foreign countries and fosters international exchange about advances in landscape ecology at each annual meeting. IALE-NA especially seeks to support more participants from non-G7 countries while also increasing connections and representation from other IALE-NA countries (Mexico, Central America, and The Caribbean). Awards are available to foreign scholars to offset costs associated with attending the IALE-North America meeting.

Award Year 2022 Recipients:

Abdesslam Chai-Allah (Morocco), Ph.D. Student, National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and Environment (INRAE), France
Jins VJ (India), Research Associate, Department of Zoology, Sikkim University, Gangtok, India
Habib Ramezani (Iran), Department of Forest Resource Management, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Umeå, Sweden
Igor Sirodoev (Romania), Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences, Ovidius University of Constanta, Constanta, Romania

Diversity Participation Awards

The International Association for Landscape Ecology-North America (IALE-NA) aims to provide support for diverse and traditionally underrepresented voices by proactively addressing diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) within our Regional Chapter. Four priority DEI action items are to broaden participation of underrepresented minorities across our region, increase representation of non-G7 IALE-NA countries (Mexico, Central America, and The Caribbean), increase opportunities for engagement through inclusive networking, and form a mentoring program.

Award recipients received funds to offset registration costs associated with attending the 2022 IALE-North America virtual meeting. Award recipients participated in the conference through a newly formed mentoring program as a mentor or mentee and through networking activities.

Award Year 2022 Recipients:

Abigail Axness, Boise State University
Viviana Quiroga Angel, University of Toronto
Monika Shankar, University of California--Los Angeles
Ayanna St. Rose, University of Arkansas

Student Travel Awards

In recognition that students are valuable current and future members of IALE-North America, the Student Travel Awards (STA) support student travel to the Annual Meetings. Approximately 10 awards have been awarded annually since 2009. Each award recipient receives up to $500 to help cover travel expenses at the meeting. Students are eligible to receive one IALE-North America sponsored STA per degree program and must have an abstract for an oral or poster presentation at the conference accepted by the Program Committee to obtain funding. Application instructions are available on the conference web page.

Student Travel Awards were made available to 21 students to attend the 2022 Virtual Meeting with funding generously provided by IALE-North America. The following students were selected by the IALE-North America Awards Committee to receive these awards.

Award Year 2022 Recipients:

Erin Matula, Northern Michigan University, The Nature Conservancy, and The Conservation Data Lab
Skye Greenler, Oregon State University, Department of Forest Engineering, Resources, and Management
Shelby Snapp, Geography and Environmental Sustainability at The University of Oklahoma
Alison Deak, Department of Geography, University of Oregon
Casey Hamilton, Department of Geography, The Pennsylvania State University
Claire Wang, IDCE and Geography Department, Clark University
Erin Rowland-Schaefer, Department of Biological Sciences, Northern Illinois University
Thomas Bilintoh, Geography Department, Clark University
David Grace, University of Michigan, School for Environment and Sustainability
Wenxin Yang, School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning, Arizona State University
Kimberly Serno, Biology, Baylor University
Shelby Weiss, Department of Geography, University of Oregon
Emlyn Crocker, Department of Natural Resources and the Environment, University of Connecticut
Abigail Dunn, Dept. of Natural Resources and the Environment at University of Connecticut
Louis Jochems, Department of Biological Sciences, Boise State University
Olivia Spencer, Department of Geography and The Pennsylvania State University
Stuart Steidle, Geography, University of Oregon
Logan Hysen, Wildlife Department, Humboldt State University
Danial Nayeri, Department of Wildlife, Humboldt State University
Veronica Frans, Center for Systems Integration and Sustainability, Michigan State University
Ara Metz, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences; University of Northern Colorado

Past IALE-North America Award Recipients

Distinguished Landscape Ecologist
The Award for Distinguished Landscape Ecologist is given for distinguished scientific contribution to the field of landscape ecology. The intent of this award is to specifically recognize those unique individuals whose thinking and writing have helped to shape the field of landscape ecology. This award highlights those scholars whose scientific endeavors pervade our discipline and its continuing development. This award is ordinarily given for outstanding scientific achievement over a period of a decade or more, and it is the most prestigious honor bestowed by our Chapter.

2022. Carol Johnston
2021. Janet Franklin
2020. Tom Spies
2019. Kurt Riitters
2018. Jianguo “Jack” Liu
2017. William Hargrove
2016. Kimberly A. With
2014. Dean Urban
2013. Virginia Dale
2013. Marie-Josée Fortin
2012. David Mladenoff
2011. Lenore Fahrig
2010. Joan Iverson Nassauer
2010. Jianguo (Jingle) Wu
2009. Herman (Hank) Shugart Jr.
2007. Eric Gustafson
2006. Bruce T. Milne
2005. H. Ronald Pulliam
2004. Thomas Crow
2003. Simon Levin
2002. Louis Iverson
2001. Gary Barrett
2000. Paul Risser
1998. Monica G. Turner
1997. Gray Merriam
1996. John A. Wiens
1995. Robert O'Neill
1994. Robert Gardner
1992. Richard Forman
1991. Frank Golley

Distinguished Landscape Practitioner
The award for Distinguished Landscape Practitioner is given for distinguished contributions in the application of the principles of landscape ecology to real-world problems. The intent is to recognize unusual contributions to landscape ecology through the creative applications of this science to the resolution of practical dilemmas. This award is given for outstanding applications over a period of years.

2022. David Theobald
2021. Point Blue Conservation Science
2020. Sarah Gergel
2019. Michael Dombeck
2018. James “Jim” Wickam
2018. Sam Cushman
2017. The Landscape Conservation Cooperative Network
2016. Charles Convis, ESRI Conservation Program (ECP)
2014. Andrew Fall
2013. K. Bruce Jones
2012. United States National Park Service's Inventory and Monitoring (I&M) Program
2010. Wes H. Jackson
2009. Kevin McGarigal
2005. David Hulse
2004. Frederick Steiner, University of Texas
2003. USGS GAP Program
2002. The Great Plains Restoration Council for The Buffalo Commons
2001. The Nature Conservancy
2000. Larry Harris
1998. Joan Iverson Nassauer
1997. Michael Hough
1996. Carl Steinitz, Harvard School of Design
1995. Wisconsin Chapter of the Nature Conservancy for the Baraboo Hills project
1994. Nancy Diaz
1994. Mt. Hood NF
1991. Andropogon Associates

Distinguished Service Award
The award for Distinguished Service recognizes individuals who have contributed exceptionally to IALE-North America. Exceptional service represents a contribution to IALE-North America in terms of time, energy and dedication that advanced the mission of IALE-North America in an extraordinary manner and thus deserves special recognition.

2022. Kristin Byrd
2021. Jessica Price
2020. Steven Walters
2019. Todd Lookingbill and Kathleen Vigness-Raposa
2018. Nancy E. McIntyre
2017. Anita Morzillo
2016. Robert Scheller
2014. Peter August
2012. Jianguo (Jingle) Wu
2010. Monica G. Turner
2006. Garik Gutman
2006. William Taylor
2006. Jack Liu
2005. David Mladenoff
2001. Jerry Franklin
1998. Eugene Odum
1998. Frank Golley
1997. Richard Forman
1995. Forest Stearns

Outstanding Paper Award
This award recognizes an outstanding paper published in the discipline of landscape ecology in the preceding two years that significantly advances the science or practice of landscape ecology.

2022. Andrade, R., J. Franklin, K.L. Larson, C.M. Swan, S.B. Lerman, H.L. Bateman, P.S. Warren, and A. York. 2021. Predicting the assembly of novel communities in urban ecosystems. Landscape Ecology 36: 1-15
2021. Halstead, K.E., J.D. Alexander, A. S. Hadley, J.L. Stephens, Z. Yang, and M.G. Betts. 2019. Using a species-centered approach to predict bird community responses to habitat fragmentation. Landscape Ecology 34: 1919-1935
2020. McCullough, I.M., K.S. Cheruvelil, J.-F. Lapierre, N.R. Lottig, M.A. Moritz, J. Stachelek, and P.A. Soranno. 2019. Do lakes feel the burn? Ecological consequences of increasing exposure of lakes to fire in the continental United States. Global Change Biology 25: 2841-2854
2019. Bürgi, M., C. Bieling, K. Hackwitz, T. Kizos, J. Lieskovský, M. Martín, S. McCarthy, M. Müller, H. Palang, T. Plieninger, and A. Printsmann. 2017. Processes and driving forces in changing cultural landscapes across Europe. Landscape Ecology 32: 2097-2112
2018. McClure, M.L., A.J. Hansen, and R.M. Inman. 2016. Connecting models to movements: testing connectivity model predictions against empirical migration and dispersal data. Landscape Ecology 31: 1419–1432
2017. Jenerette, G.D., S.L. Harlan, A. Buyantuev, W.L. Stefanov, J. Declet-Barreto, B.L. Ruddell, S.W. Myint, S. Kaplan, and X. Li. 2016. Micro-scale urban surface temperatures are related to land-cover features and heat related health impacts in Phoenix, AZ USA. Landscape Ecology 31: 745-760
2016. Bruton, M. J., M. Maron, N. Levin, and C. A. McAlpine. 2015. Testing the relevance of binary, mosaic and continuous landscape conceptualisations to reptiles in regenerating dryland landscapes. Landscape Ecology 30: 715-728
2014. Hoffman, F., J. Kumar, R. Mills, and W. Hargrove. 2013. Representativeness-based sampling network design for the State of Alaska. Landscape Ecology 28: 1567-1586
2013. McKenzie, D., and M. Kennedy. 2012. Power laws reveal phase transitions in landscape controls of fire regimes. Nature Communications 3: 726
2012. Uriarte, M., A. Marina, M.T.B. da Silva, P. Rubim, E. Johnson, and E.M. Bruna. 2011. Disentangling the drivers of reduced long-distance seed dispersal by birds in an experimentally fragmented landscape. Ecology 92: 924-937
2011. Gilbert-Norton, L., R. Wilson, J.R. Stevens, and K.H. Beard. 2010. A meta-analytic review of corridor effectiveness. Conservation Biology 24: 660-668
2010. Smith, A.C., N. Koper, C.M. Francis, and L. Fahrig. 2009. Confronting collinearity: comparing methods for disentangling the effects of habitat loss and fragmentation. Landscape Ecology 24: 1271-1285
2009. Treml, E.A., P.N. Halpin, D.L. Urban, and L.F. Pratson. 2008. Modeling population connectivity by ocean currents, a graph-theoretic approach for marine conservation. Landscape Ecology 23: 19-36
2008. Falk, D.A., C. Miller, D. McKenzie, and A.E. Black. 2007. Cross-scale analysis of fire regimes. Ecosystems 10: 809-823
2007. Laurance, W.F., H.E.M. Nascimento, S.G. Laurance, A. Andrade, J.E.L.S. Ribeiro, J.P. Giraldo, T.E. Lovejoy, R. Condit, J. Chave, K.E. Harms, and S. D'Angelo. 2006. Rapid decay of tree-community composition in Amazonian forest fragments. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (United States) 103: 19010-19014
2006. An, L., M. Linderman, J. Qi, A. Shortridge, and J. Liu. 2005. Exploring complexity in a human-environment system: an agent-based spatial model for multidisciplinary and multiscale integration. Annals of the Association of American Geographers 95: 54-79
2005. Farhig, L. 2003. Effects of habitat fragmentation on biodiversity. Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics 34: 487-515
2004. Hargrove, W.H., F.M. Hoffman, and P.M. Schwartz. 2002. A fractal landscape realizer for generating synthetic maps. Conservation Ecology 6: article 2 (online)
2003. Tewksbury, J.J., D.J. Levey, N.M. Haddad, J.L. Orrock, A. Weldon, B.J. Danielson, J. Brinkerhoff, E.I. Damschen, and P. Townsend. 2002. Corridors affect plants, animals, and their interactions in fragmented landscapes. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (United States) 99: 12923-12926
2002. With, K.A. and A.W. King. 2001. Analysis of landscape sources and sinks: the effect of spatial pattern on avian demography. Biological Conservation 100: 75-88
2001. Keymer, J.E., P. Marquet, J.V. Hernandez, and S. Levin. 2000. Extinction thresholds and metapopulation persistence in dynamic landscapes. American Naturalist 156: 478-494
2000. Wear, D.N., and P. Bolstad. 1998. Land-use changes in southern Appalachian landscapes: spatial analysis and forecast evaluation. Ecosystems 1: 575-594
1998. Flather, C.H., and J.R. Sauer. 1996. Using landscape ecology to test hypotheses about large-scale abundance patterns in migratory birds. Ecology 77: 28-35
1997. Mladenoff, D.J., T.A. Sickley, R.G. Haight, and A.P. Wydeven. 1995. A regional landscape analysis and prediction of favorable gray wolf habitat in the northern Great Lakes region. Conservation Biology 9: 279-294
1996. With, K.A., and T.O. Crist. 1995. Critical thresholds in species' responses to landscape structure. Ecology 76: 2446-2459
1995. Johnson, C. 1994. Woodland expansion in the Platte River. Nebraska: patterns and cause. Ecological Monographs 64: 45-84
1994. Wiens, J.A., N.C. Stenseth, B. Van Horne, and R.A. Ims. 1993. Ecological mechanisms and landscape ecology. Oikos 66: 369-380
1992. Milne, B. 1992. Spatial aggregation and neutral models in fractal landscapes. American Naturalist 139: 32-57
1991. Andow, D.A., P.M. Karieva, S.A. Levin, and A. Okubo. 1990. Spread of invading organisms. Landscape Ecology 4: 177-188

Award for Best Student Presentation
The award for Best Student Presentation is given for the best oral or poster presentation given by a student at the previous Annual Meeting. The award consists of a $300 cash award, a certificate commemorating the award, and a waiver of one future meeting registration fee. Waiver of registration may be applied to one of the next two subsequent IALE-North America annual meetings.

2022. Please check back
2021. Tin Hang Hung, University of Oxford, GenDivRange: A Novel Database of Population Genetic Diversity and Dispersal Distance across a Wide Range of Taxa to Test the Evolutionary Determinants of Species Range Limits
2020. Dalal Hanna, McGill University: Assessing the Relationship Between Water Quality and Watershed Protection
2019. Courtney Larson, Colorado State University: Recreation and Wildlife Conservation in a Fragmented Urban Landscape
2018. Timothy Swartz, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign: Integrating Historical, Ecological, and Social Data to Understand Patterns of Amphibian Occupancy and Habitat Availability in an Agroecosystem (oral)
2017. Mark Herse, Kansas State University: Habitat fragment shape and landscape matrix composition mediate abundance of a declining grassland songbird (oral)
2016. Erika Newman, University of California - Berkeley: Macroecology meets disturbance ecology: connecting species diversity patterns to disturbance ecology through information entropy statistics (oral)
2015. Theraesa Coyle, McGill University: Conserving God’s Own Country: Biodiversity in Agroforestry Landscapes of Kerala, India (oral)
2014. Amy Mui, University of Toronto: Seasonal changes in core wetland connectivity for a threatened freshwater turtle in southern Ontario (oral)
2013. Micah Hahn, University of Wisconsin - Madison: Roosting Behavior and Habitat Selection of Pteropus Giganteus Reveals Potential Links to Nipah Virus Epidemiology (oral)
2012. Jenica Allen, University of Connecticut: Socio-economics drive invasive plants in New England through forest fragmentation (oral)
2011. Mao-Ning Tuanmu, Michigan State University: Can the Giant Panda survive climate change? (oral)
2010. Kathleen Vigness-Raposa, University of Rhode Island: Habitat of humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) in the North Atlantic Ocean (oral)
2009. Alisa Wade, Colorado State University: Urban encroachment on the US protected area network (oral)
2008. Bronwyn Rayfield, University of Toronto: Identifying potential movement pathways in fragmented landscapes: incorporating uncertainty in landscape resistance (oral)
2008. Sarah Olson, University of Wisconsin: Malaria patterns and hydrology in the Amazon - will land use and cover changes alter risk? (poster)
2007. Cathy Collins, Kansas University: Patch size affects plant extinction rates in an experimentally fragmented grassland (oral)
2007. Benjamin Zuckerberg, State University of New York: Implications of the abundance-occupancy rule: Can atlas data be used to monitor avian population change? (oral)
2006. Patrick James, University of Toronto: Simulating the effects of shifting harvest policies on long term spatial patterns of forest age structure. (oral)
2005. Yolanda Wiersma, University of Guelph: Beta-diversity and reserve design in Canada. (oral)
2004. Brad McRae, Northern Arizona University: Integrating landscape ecology and population genetics: new tools from circuit theory (oral)
2003. Jennifer Miller, West Virginia University: A comparison of methods for incorporating spatial dependence in predictive vegetation models (oral)
2002. Tenley Conway, Rutgers University: The impact of future development on the water and terrestrial resources in the Barnegat Bay Watershed NJ (oral)
2001. Matthew Baker, University of Michigan: Predicting spatial variation in riparian hydrology and forest composition across lower Michigan (oral)
2000. Edward Laurent, Purdue University: Modeling habitat context for the endangered copperbelly water snake (oral)
1998. Patrick Zollner, Indiana State University: Search strategies for landscape-level inter-patch movements (oral)
1997. Jing Huang, Oregon State University: Characterizing forest spatial pattern using digitized aerial photographs (oral)
1996. Nancy McIntyre, Colorado State University: Effects of internal and external motivational factors on animal movements in experimental landscapes (oral)
1995. Timothy Keitt, University of New Mexico: Detecting critical scales in fragmented landscapes (oral)
1994. George Hess, North Carolina State University: Could increased connectivity be more than we bargained for? (poster)
1991. Joseph Miller, Penn State University: Landscape patterns and biotic communities characteristics in central Pennsylvania (poster)

Best Student Presentation - Honorable Mention

2022. Please check back
2021. April Martinig, University of Alberta, Temporal clustering of prey in wildlife passages provides no evidence of a prey-trap, instead vegetated highway medians act as foraging habitat
2020. Caitlin Cunningham, Dalhousie University: Developing a method to examine changes in effective mesh size across a landscape: A case study of Nova Scotia, Canada
2019. Michele Buonanduci, University of Washington: Individual Tree and Local Tree Neighborhood Factors Affecting Mountain Pine Beetle-Induced Lodgepole Pine Mortality
2018. Brooke Cassell, Portland State University: Under Extreme Weather Conditions, Dry Mixed-conifer Forests in the Western U.S. Benefit from Spatial Optimization of Fuel Treatments (oral)
2017. Samantha Hauser, University of Louisiana - Lafayette: Understanding landscape variables that influence gene flow in a highly vagile species, the black-capped vireo (Vireo atricapilla) (oral)
2017. Carly Ziter, University of Wisconsin - Madison: Ecosystem service provision by urban greenspaces: Effects of land cover, land-use history, and within-land cover variability on soil-based services (oral)
2016. Elsa Anderson, University of Illinois - Chicago: Evaluating historic, local, social, and landscape drivers of species diversity in vacant lots in Chicago, IL, USA (oral)
2015. Jesse Miller, University of Wisconsin - Madison: Encroachment of woody vegetation drives rapid state change in insular grasslands (oral)
2015. Kathy Zeller, University of Massachusetts - Amherst: Evaluating resistance surfaces for wildlife (oral)
2014. Binbin Li, Duke University: Impacts and solutions of livestock grazing in protected areas for the Giant Panda (oral)
2013. Camille Beasley, University of Georgia: Suspended Development: Disentangling Effects of Habitat Alteration and Human Habitation on Birds (oral)
2013. Katherine Renwick, Colorado State University: Interactive Effects of Climate and Disturbance on Landscape-scale Range Dynamics of Rocky Mountain Tree Species (oral)
2012. Steven Collins, Texas Tech University: Developing species distribution models for riverine dragonflies with multiscale environmental parameters (oral)
2011. Kristin Marshall, Colorado State University: Wolves, elk, and willows: landscape configurations on Yellowstones Northern Range (oral)
2009. Niko Balkenhol, University of Idaho: Hierarchial multi-scale analysis of landscape-genetic relationships in Idaho cougars (oral)
2009. Jennifer Litteral, Arizona State University: Effects of urbanization on avian species diversity in the Phoenix metropolitan area: patters in vegetation fragments (oral)
2005. Alicia Ellis, Darmouth College: Linking individual movement to population level processes in tree hole mosquito systems (oral)
2004. Don Falk, University of Arizona: Event-area relationships: scaling rules for fire regimes (oral)
2003. Monika Moskal, University of Kansas: Harmonic analysis of natural and man made disturbances in the Yellowstone region (oral)
2002. Kenneth Pierce, Duke University: Detecting scale-specific interactions between seed dispersal and environment (oral)
2001. Geoffrey Hay, University of Montreal: Scale-space for landscape ecologists: a novel approach for defining multi-scale landscape structure in high-resolution imagery (oral)
2000. Jennifer Fraterrigo, Colorado State University: Low density human settlement in the Rocky Mountain west: does it matter to bird communities? (poster)
2000. Veronique St.Louis, University of Montreal: Does vegetation heterogeneity have any effect on territory delimitation of black-throated blue warblers (Dendroica caurulescens) and ovenbird (Sierus aurocapillus)? (oral)
1998. Penny Flick, Duke University: A multiple-scale approach to reserve site selection (poster)
1997. Deborah Bishop, Baylor University: Topographic effects on avian richness, abundance, and probability of site use during spring migration (poster)
1996. Sandra Luque, Rutgers University: The impact of management practices on the landscape of a natural reserve: The New Jersey Pine Barrens, a case study