{"id":5512,"date":"2016-07-25T17:22:04","date_gmt":"2016-07-26T00:22:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/esa.org\/history\/?p=5512"},"modified":"2016-07-25T17:22:04","modified_gmt":"2016-07-26T00:22:04","slug":"smith-william","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/esa.org\/history\/2016\/07\/smith-william\/","title":{"rendered":"William Smith"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>From an \u201cEcologist Directory\u201d maintained by the ESA Education Office about 2004-2005. Profile circa 2004.<\/em><br>\n<strong>Degree<\/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\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Ph.D.<br>\n<strong>Position<\/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\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Professor and Charles H. Babcock Chair in Biology<br>\n<strong>Department<\/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 Biology Department<br>\n<strong>Organization<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Wake Forest University, North Carolina<br>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-5513 img-fluid\" style=\"float: left\" src=\"https:\/\/esa.org\/history\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/william_smith_profile.gif\" alt=\"william_smith_profile\" width=\"200\" height=\"183\"><strong>When did you become interested in ecology?<br>\n<\/strong>I became interested after reading an article in Reader\u2019s Digest about the application of physics to biology. The article was titled \u201cBionics\u201d and gave several examples of physical processes like bat\/moth radar interactions and porpoise sonar, etc. I started out wanting to begin a coaching career in basketball at a JC in California after obtaining a MS degree. But then I became interested in research and went after the PhD. I liked the freedom of doing field research and linking physics and biology. What other career would allow me the freedom to study what I wanted, when and where I wanted?<br>\n<strong>Describe 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><br>\nI originally wanted to be a marine ecologist so that I could stay around the beach environment. My MS was in intertidal ecology (fiddler crabs), but I converted to plants because there was much more sophisticated and natural ecophysiology that could be done. I have training in biophysics and have held permanent academic positions at Univ Wyoming and Wake Forest Univ with short-term appointments at the Univ of Hawaii and The Univ of Western Australia<br>\n<strong>What key advice would you offer a student today?<\/strong><br>\nI would recommend that a student gain strengths in another field besides ecology, e.g. chemistry, math, physics, computer science, etc. These are the people today making the strongest contributions to ecology.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>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\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\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Professor and Charles H. Babcock Chair in Biology Department\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 Biology Department Organization\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Wake Forest University, North Carolina When did you become interested in ecology? I became interested after reading an article in Reader\u2019s Digest about the application of physics to biology. The&#8230;<\/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-5512","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\/5512","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=5512"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5512\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5512"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5512"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5512"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}