{"id":5463,"date":"2016-07-23T18:17:40","date_gmt":"2016-07-24T01:17:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/esa.org\/history\/?p=5463"},"modified":"2016-07-23T18:17:40","modified_gmt":"2016-07-24T01:17:40","slug":"reiners-william","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/esa.org\/history\/2016\/07\/reiners-william\/","title":{"rendered":"William A. Reiners"},"content":{"rendered":"

From an \u201cEcologist Directory\u201d maintained by the ESA Education Office about 2004-2005. Profile circa 2004.<\/em>
\nDegree<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Ph.D.
\nPosition<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director and Professor
\nDepartment<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Botany Dept. and Wyoming Geographic Information Science Center
\nOrganization<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 University of Wyoming
\n\"william_reiners\"When did you become interested in ecology?
\n<\/strong>
\nI learned about ecology as an undergraduate at Knox College through the influence of Paul Shepard. Paul combined outstanding natural history skills with a philosophical approach to nature. Besides introducing me to formal ecology (using the first edition of Gene Odum\u2019s textbook), he also illuminated how culture influences our cognition of landscapes and nature through a course titled \u201cman in the landscape.\u201d Paul took his advisees on Sunday afternoon excursions that were lessons in observation, land use history and environmental ethics. Paul Shepard went on to write many articles and a series of philosophical books on man and nature that became part of the canon for \u201cdeep ecology.\u201d After Paul Shepard, I would name Murray F. Buell as the person who made me a professional ecologist at Rutgers, and wish to recognize strong influences from George M. Woodwell, then at Brookhaven National Lab, and Eville Gorham at the University of Minnesota. All of these men gave generously to help me become a scientist\u2014a never-ending process.
\nHow did you learn about ecological careers?
\n<\/strong>
\nAs an undergraduate, there was only one model\u2013the academic one. By the time I was in graduate school, ecological positions in the government were beginning to open up. It wasn\u2019t until I was very much along in my career that private consulting was a viable career path. I am presently a Professor of Botany but also Director of the Wyoming Geographic Information Science Center. As this Center is largely based on soft money, I find myself in the ironic position of operating a business venture.
\nDescribe your route to a career in (or using) ecology. What challenges did you need to overcome? What was your training, and what positions have you held?<\/strong>
\nMy graduate training was a curious mixture of the classical, involving botany and ecology not much different from that taught in the 1930s, and cutting edge paradigms and tools which I encountered at George Woodwell\u2019s lab at Brookhaven. Both the classical and modern have been very useful to me. In retrospect, the biggest personal challenges were realizing, much less overcoming, my own weaknesses in mathematics, scientific philosophy, and strategic visualization. Those weaknesses were partially compensated for by my proclivity toward physics, chemistry and geology, but they have not yet been completely overcome. Since receiving my Ph.D. with Murray Buell in 1964, I have been in academic positions at the University of Minnesota, Dartmouth College and University of Wyoming. I have benefited greatly from a year as a program officer at NSF, as an IGBP Fellow in Berlin, and from sabbaticals in Santa Barbara. Administrative positions as department head and head of research centers have been personal growth experiences but did little for my maturation as a scientist.
\nWhat advice do you have for communicating ecology to diverse audiences?<\/strong>
\nEcology is extremely demanding and none of us can be all things. Nevertheless, I encourage an unstinting effort to be a broader environmental scientist (atmospheric science, geology, etc.). Constantly try to understand the history of science, how advances are made on one hand, versus how we tend to reiterate small circles of rediscovery under new semantics on the other. Think about what ecology needs to be a respectable science, not just what is fun, fundable or equitable. Seek team collaborations with those that complement your strengths. Be willing to seek generalizations without letting them crystallize into truths. Never stop growing. Have a life that nourishes your profession.
\nWhat key advice would you offer a student today?<\/strong>
\nParticularly for non-scientific audiences, put yourself in their place, don\u2019t try to put them in yours. Too bad I didn\u2019t try this until quite late.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From an \u201cEcologist Directory\u201d maintained by the ESA Education Office about 2004-2005. Profile circa 2004. Degree\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Ph.D. Position\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director and Professor Department\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Botany Dept. and Wyoming Geographic Information Science Center Organization\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 University of Wyoming When did you become interested in ecology? I learned about ecology as an undergraduate at Knox College through the influence of Paul Shepard. Paul combined outstanding…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11106,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[151,155,165],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5463","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biographies","category-ecologist-directory","category-personal-accounts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5463","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11106"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5463"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5463\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}