American Society of Naturalists

The ASN periodically gives an extraordinary award, an Honorary Lifetime Membership, intended to recognize a scientist whose research career epitomizes the goal of the Society: the conceptual unification of the biological sciences. The society may have up to twelve honorary lifetime members. They are recognized for a career of outstanding scholarship and leadership in our community. The ASN Constitution sets a maximum of 12 honorary lifetime members. This year the ASN EC awarded two new Honorary Lifetime Members: Joel Kingsolver and Douglas Futuyma.

Dr. Joel Kingsolver (Professor of Biology, University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill) has a long history of leadership in our field as a researcher studying organisms adaptation complex and variable environments. He was also of service to the ASN as past President (2009) and past Editor-in-Chief of The American Naturalist. His work links environmental conditions and phenotypes to performance and fitness, and the interplay of plasticity and evolution has served as an illustrative unifying approach. He has contributed foundational work on the biophysical and physiological basis of ecology and evolution, accounting for non-linearities and environmental fluctuations in the context of thermal sensitivity, the evolution of reaction norms, and environmental drivers of selection. He has been a leader in applying biological principles to understand sensitivity to global change including organizing an important early workshop and book. He has made substantial contributions to mentoring.

Dr. Douglas Futuyma (Distinguished Professor Emeritus, Stony Brook University) was President of ASN in 1994. His published Presidential Address “Wherefore and whither the naturalist?” (AmNat, 1998, 151:1–6) is often cited as a justification for what all of us in this society do. He has served for many years as Editor-in-Chief of Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics, as well as the author, of course, of the long-used textbook in evolutionary biology. Doug sits clearly at the intersection of ecology, evolution, and behavior and his work has been foundational in the study of species interactions.

A list of other honorary lifetime members can be found here.