Stephen P. Hubbell has won the 2009 Eminent Ecologist Award. Hubbell is a staff scientist at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) and professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at UCLA.
Hubbell developed the Unified Neutral Theory of Biodiversity and Biogeography, which is a general theory to explain the diversity of life. Until Hubbell no one had attempted to explain diversity and abundance of species at such a scale.
“The fact that the Neutral Theory is refutable—that it could be tested—has fundamentally advanced the science of ecology,” said Stuart Davies, director of Center for Tropical Forest Science.
Hubbell has also impacted tropical ecology in the field. In 1979 Hubbell set off an experiment to gather data on trees in large tracts of forest. This, he argued, was the only way to test ideas related to diversity. The study began at STRI’s site on Barro Colorado Island in Panama, but has since expanded into 20 countries around the world. Due to its size the on-going study provides data on global, rather than just regional, change.
“Steve Hubbell’s brilliant idea was to map thousands of individuals of each tree species in a forest because ecology is ultimately about space,” Davies said.
In 1990 Hubbell founded the National Council on Science and the Environment, which currently has 10,000 members. The organization’s goal is to continually improve the science behind environmental decision-making.
At the age of 67, Hubbell has written 160 paper and three books.
Large forest tracts monitored worldwide.
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