LOYE AND ALDEN MILLER RESEARCH AWARD
The Loye and Alden Miller Research Award is a fitting recognition of the outstanding lifetime achievements of Richard T. Holmes in ornithological research. Dr. Holmes has sustained a brilliant research career, spanning four decades, that has generated a wealth of knowledge on the ecology, behavior, and population dynamics of Neotropical migrants on their north-temperate breeding grounds and tropical wintering grounds. His ecological research at Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest, New Hampshire, and his work in islands of the Caribbean and Central America have been highly influential in our understanding of the effects of climate and biotic factors on the demography and community structure of forest birds. His long-term research has few parallels. It is noteworthy for its own evolution of research questions and hypotheses, and for the emergence of a pluralistic model of population regulation and community structure of Neotropical migrant birds.
Dr. Holmes has maintained not only fruitful study of central research questions, but fruitful collaborative relationships with students as well. Together, they have investigated a tremendous breadth of topics, including the evolution of life-history traits of forest passerines, mating systems, reproductive ecology, territoriality, site fidelity and dispersal, survivorship, habitat selection, foraging behavior, and the impact of avian predation on invertebrate populations. Of his more than 100 publications, his most oft-cited papers include his early work with Frank Pitelka on social organization of arctic-breeding sandpipers. Dr. Holmes currently collaborates in the development and testing of stable isotope analyses as a tool to link breeding and wintering grounds of birds.
Dr. Holmes completed his Ph.D. at the University of California at Berkeley in 1964, under the guidance of Frank Pitelka. He joined the biology faculty at Dartmouth College in 1967, where he mentored 20 graduate and post-doctoral students as well as innumerable undergraduates. As a visiting scientist, he worked at the Australian Museum in Sydney, Australia, and at the University of Cape Town, South Africa. He has been generous in contributing his time and expertise to many committees, editorial panels, and scientific advisory boards of professional societies and foundations. He has served on the governing councils and is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Ornithologists' Union. He currently serves as an editor for the Journal of Avian Biology.
Dr. Holmes has been recognized throughout his productive career for his contributions to ornithological research. He won the Cooper Ornithological Society's A. Brazier Howell Award in 1964, the Harry R. Painton Award twice, in 1967 and 1985, the American Ornithologists' Union's William Brewster Award in 1993, and the Wilson Ornithological Society's Margaret Morse Nice medal for lifetime contributions to ornithology in 2002. To this impressive history, we add the Loye and Alden Miller Research Award of 2002.
HONORARY MEMBERSHIP
WALTER D. KOENIG
The Cooper Ornithological Society is pleased to award Dr. Walter D. Koenig with Honorary Membership for his service to our society. Dr. Koenig received his B.S. in biology from Stanford University in 1972. He completed his Ph.D. in zoology from the University of California, Berkeley under Dr. Frank Pitelka in 1978. His dissertation is titled “Ecological and evolutionary aspects of cooperative breeding in Acorn Woodpeckers of central coastal California.” Following completion of the Ph.D., Dr. Koenig undertook postdoctoral research also with Dr. Pitelka.
From 1981 to 1982 he was assistant professor and curator of the Moore Laboratory of Ornithology at Occidental College, Los Angeles, California. From 1982 to the present he has been a research zoologist at Hastings Reservation, Carmel Valley, California, and adjunct professor in the Department of Integrative Biology, University of California, Berkeley. Dr. Koenig's research interests are in behavioral ecology, ornithology, population ecology, vertebrate social behavior, dispersal, mating systems, sexual selection, spatial patterns, and reproductive strategies.
Dr. Koenig's other honors include being selected as an Elected Member and Fellow by the American Ornithologists' Union, and receiving the William Brewster Memorial Award, also from the American Ornithologists' Union. He was also named a Fellow of the California Academy of Sciences. Dr. Koenig was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship to work in Cambridge, UK.
Dr. Koenig's contributions to the Cooper Ornithological Society have been numerous and varied. He served on the local committee for an annual meeting, on the Publications Committee, chaired the Board Nominating Committee, and completed a term on the Board of Directors. He served as Editor of this journal from 1995 to 2000, during which time he devised an ingenious and bewilderingly complex database for tracking manuscripts from submission to publication, a modified version of which is still in use to this day.
His service to professional societies has not been limited to the Cooper Ornithological Society. He has been secretary of and organized a meeting for the International Society for Behavioral Ecology and served on the council of the American Ornithologists' Union. The Cooper Ornithological Society is proud to recognize Dr. Walter Koenig as an Honorary Member in recognition of his service to the Society and to the profession of ornithology in general.
