Steward Pickett

Both Steward Pickett and the late Fakhri Bazzaz, who was Pickett’s doctoral advisor, are renowned for their passion in broadening participation and mentoring a wide diversity of aspiring scientists to tackle the most challenging ecological issues of our time.

Pickett, who was an early Ph.D. student of Bazzaz, is Distinguished Senior Scientist at the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies and a member of the National Academy of Sciences. During his 45+ year career, he pioneered the understanding of non-equilibrium dynamics of landscapes and the ecology of urban environments—helping to create the now-ubiquitous field of urban ecology.

He has served on the editorial boards of numerous journals, the boards of directors for the American Institute of Biological Sciences and the Defenders of Wildlife, the Biological Sciences Advisory Committee for the National Science Foundation, and several National Research Council committees and boards, including the Committee on Scientific Issues of the Endangered Species Act, the Panel on New Research on Population & Environment, and the Board on Environmental Studies and Toxicology. Most importantly to our society, he served as the ESA Vice President for Science in the mid-1990s and then as ESA’s President from 2011 to 2013. He was the first and only Black President of the Society. He has been an inspiring mentor and role model to young scholars in urban ecology and sustainability.