Professor of Water Quality, Head of the Department of Fisheries, , Wildlife, and Conservation Biology, University of Minnesota
Nominee: Roger T. and David W. Johnson
Jim Perry is Professor of Water Quality and Head of the Department of Fisheries, Wildlife and Conservation Biology at the University of Minnesota. He previously served as Director of Graduate Studies in Water Resource Science and currently is Director of Graduate Studies in Wildlife Conservation. He also serves as a member of the graduate faculties in Conservation Biology and Natural Resource Science and Management. He was a Professor in Forest Resources for 18 years before joining Fisheries, Wildlife and Conservation Biology as Head in 2000 (clearly this guy cannot hold a job). He has won the Morse Alumni Award for Outstanding Contributions to Undergraduate Education, the Richard C Newman Award for the Art of Teaching, the University of Minnesota Award for Outstanding Service, and been elected to the Academy of Distinguished Teachers. Jim received his Ph.D. in biology from Idaho State University in 1981. Prior to coming to Minnesota, he served as Area Manager for a consulting firm in Salt Lake City and served 9 years as Senior Water Quality Specialist for the State of Idaho. He also worked in Costa Rica for two years as Ichthyologist for the Peace Corps (this guy is as old as the hills). He has worked in more than 50 countries, including serving for six years as Deputy Director of the US AID Environmental Training Project for Central and Eastern Europe. He has served as Associate Editor for the Journal of Natural Resource and Life Science Education since 1999. He has served on the Board of Directors of the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy since 1996 and currently is Board Vice-Chair. His research interests center on informed natural resource decision making at the landscape scale. Jim and his students are active currently in six other countries as well as the US. They pose questions about the ways ecosystems are structured, how they function and how they are distributed in landscapes; and how management practices affect those systems and society makes wise decisions about management of landscapes. He wrote the leading text in his field (Perry and VanDerklein Water Quality: Management of a Natural Resource) and he led preparation of Perry et al. Ecosystem Management in Central and Eastern Europe: Decision Making for the Future.