UM-St. Louis Curators Professor of Biology Robert Ricklefs has won the Humboldt research award.
In fact, Ricklefs is having a very good year. The newly announced Humboldt award comes shortly after Ricklefs was elected to membership in the National Academy of Sciences, the only academic from Missouri to be selected for membership in the prestigious organization this year.
The sought-after honor is bestowed by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation to recognize lifetime achievement in science research and is given to working scientists at the peak of their career who are expected to continue to top-quality research. The award, which also aims to promote international collaboration, provides a cash prize and support for a year-long research sabbatical in Germany.
"I had known about the nomination for some time," said Ricklefs, who was nominated by a colleague in Germany, with whom he works on the life histories of bird. "I was very pleased when it was awarded."
"This is an incredible honor and we are privileged to have a scientist of his stature at the University," said Professor of Biology Terry Thiel, Acting Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, on both the Humboldt award and Ricklefs' election to the National Academy of Science. "And it reflects the quality of many of the faculty we have in the Department of Biology and College of Arts in Sciences."
"I am absolutely delighted by this tremendous external recognition," said Chancellor Thomas George, on Ricklefs' recent honors.
Ricklefs' research interests focus on evolutionary biology, particularly on avian species' growth and life histories, but also include work on plant evolution and other species. The biologist has written or co-written four books, including two well-regarded text books, and published numerous academic papers. He joined the UM-St. Louis faculty in 1995.
Ricklefs plans to use his sabbatical to finish up several on-going research projects related to his study of birds, including a life history of one species.
"I have a lot of things to catch up on," Ricklefs said. "There are certainly a lot of projects I want to sort of push along quite a ways while I'm on the sabbatical. I get a fair amount of free time, to concentrate on some of my analysis and writing, and there are certain specific projects I will be working on."
The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation awards up to 100 Humboldt Research Awards a year to eminent non-German researchers at the summit of academic careers. The foundation also confers several other research awards and promotes on-going connection between scientists internationally. The organization was named for Alexander von Humboldt, a noted naturalist, researcher and explorer born in 1769.
Ricklefs elaborated on some of the particular projects on which he plans to work.
"One is a large-scale bird analysis, the life history of birds, which has been a sort of combination with a research grant with a lot of investigators," he said. "We are trying to integrate a lot of the data that is coming from a number of different avenues of research in that area. So that will be fun."
"I will also be pursuing some of the work I have been doing on the generation and maintenance of biological diversity," he said. He recently completed a revision of his text book but for now wants to concentrate on publishing papers rather than starting work on a new book.
He plans to conduct his research at the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology in Radolfzell, Germany. The temporary move to Germany will cause little trouble for Ricklefs' family life.
"My wife is already working in Germany, so we go back and forth between the U.S. and Germany," he said.
While the biologist knew he had been nominated for the Humboldt award, he was not even aware he was being considered for election to the National Academy of Sciences, whose membership includes a number of Nobel Prize winners.
"I had no idea that was in the works, I had no inkling," he said with a chuckle. "They called at seven o'clock in the morning. I think I was shaving actually, and a guy I know from Princeton called up and said, 'guess what, you've been elected to the National Academy.' That was the first I heard of that."
The National Academy of Sciences is an honorific society whose members are distinguished scholars working in a range scientific and engineering disciplines. Membership in the organization is one of the highest honors a scientist may receive.
The NAS dates back to 1863, when was created by President Abraham Lincoln. Today, it provides scientific advice to the federal government and the public, and works to promote the furtherance of science and technology and its use for the general welfare.
Since Ricklefs was the only Missouri academic elected to NAS for 2009, the honor reflects well on the University.
"It really is a great honor in that way," he said, on his being the only Missourian elected to the prestigious organization this year. "It is particularly nice that UMSL is being recognized, because there are just a lot of good faculty (members) here at the University, and people really don't know it very well."
"I think this brings a lot of well-deserved recognition to the University," he said.
Ricklef's colleagues at the University were pleased as well with his recent honors, especially his election to the National Academy of Science. Both Dean Thiel and Chancellor George also had high praise for Ricklefs' personal qualities as a faculty member.
"Despite the fact that he is a world-renowned scholar and scientist, a very successful author of a text book, brings in a lot of grant money, travels the world doing research and working with dissertations, he is a very congenial colleague and a great member of the department. And that is not always true, you know, for people of his stature" said Thiel.
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