LAURELS: 'One of the greatest zoologists of our time'
Two professors elected to the American Philosophical Society, America's first learned society.
The American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists has presented its Henry S. Fitch award to Thomas Schoener, with the association’s Copeia journal describing Schoener as “one of the greatest zoologists of our time.”
Schoener, a professor of evolution and ecology, and the department’s first chair, was one of the youngest scientists ever elected to the National Academy of Sciences. He has conducted research in the West Indies, Australia, New Guinea, New Caledonia, Malaysia, Fiji, New Zealand and the United States.
“His contributions to theoretical ecology and evolutionary biology are immense … and he early on defined the ‘fundamental questions’ most ecologists ask of their organisms,” Copeia declared in an article about Schoener’s receiving the Fitch award for excellence in herpetology.