Monica G. Turner, the Eugene P. Odum Professor of Ecology and the Vilas Research Professor of Zoology at the University of Wisconsin, was elected president of the Ecological Society of America. The society, headquartered in Washington, D.C., was founded in 1915 and has more than 10,000 members. The society publishes a series of journals including Ecology and Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment.
Professor Turner said it was an extreme honor to be elected to serve as president of the society during its centennial year. “Ecologists face challenges, including heightened need to communicate ecology to diverse audiences and to provide policymakers with sound ecological science to use as the basis for decision making,” Dr. Turner said. “I look forward to working with the ESA staff, governing board and membership to support ecology and ecologists in the years ahead.”
Professor Turner has been on the faculty at the University of Wisconsin since 1994 and was promoted to full professor in 1999. She is a summa cum laude graduate of Fordham University in The Bronx, New York, where she majored in biology. Dr. Turner earned a Ph.D. in ecology at the University of Georgia.