SAN FRANCSICO -- AAAS, the world's largest general scientific society, has named a pioneering landscape ecologist from Arizona State University to receive the 2006 International Scientific Cooperation Award.

Jianguo Wu, director of the Landscape Ecology Modeling Laboratory at Arizona State, was cited for his outstanding contributions to sustainable science, including his conceptual modeling activities, his career-long involvement with landscape ecological research in China, and his great enthusiasm and energy in training advanced students and mentoring young scholars.

In collaborative studies from Asia to North America, Professor Wu has studied a variety of landscapes, from Eucalyptus forests in South China to grasslands of Inner Mongolia to the deserts of Arizona.

"Issues of sustainability in China are of urgent significance to the people of Inner Mongolia, where [Wu] does much of his fieldwork, and insights he is gaining there will be important to people of semi-arid regions across the globe," Charles L. Redman, director of the Global Institute of Sustainability at Arizona State, wrote in his nomination letter for the award.

Wu was nominated for his work in rejuvenating the field of landscape ecology. He has been at the forefront of efforts to study urbanization and desertification. He has helped bring the human element into the study of landscape ecology by incorporating economic, social and cultural factors in an integrated fashion. Wu has made fundamental contributions to the study of grassland ecology, His extensive study of the largest grassland ecosystem in the world, in Inner Mongolia, is considered to be unmatched in the scientific community. He also has done critical studies on some of the world's urban landscapes and the potential ecological impact of urban development. The National Science Foundation has recognized the importance of such work with a $9.1 million grant to the Central Arizona Phoenix Long-Term
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Contact: Lonnie Shekhtman
lshekhtm@aaas.org
202-326-6434
American Association for the Advancement of Science
14-Feb-2007