UWs Benkman Honored by Ornithological Society

The University of Wyoming’s Craig Benkman is known for his award-winning research, and this year is no different.

The Department of Zoology and Physiology professor recently was named the American Ornithological Society’s 2019 winner of the William Brewster Memorial Award. The honor is given each year to the author or co-authors of an exceptional body of work on birds of the Western Hemisphere.

Benkman, who also serves as the Robert B. Berry Distinguished Chair in Ecology at UW, is being recognized for his work on selection and adaptive radiation in crossbills, including co-evolution between crossbills and lodgepole pine; the influence of drought, fire and increasing climate variability on this relationship; and the limits of the current and future distribution of crossbills.

Every year, the American Ornithological Society (AOS) presents a range of awards honoring members for their stellar contributions to science and their impactful service to the organization. The 2019 recipients will accept their awards at the annual AOS meeting in Anchorage, Alaska, this June. Their work spans the full breadth of avian science, including contributions to evolution, conservation, systematics and genetics, as well as to the profession of ornithology itself. Awardees represent the broad diversity of the society’s members, who make major contributions to the field and the society.

Benkman previously was named a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2017 and received the E.O. Wilson Naturalist Award from the American Society of Naturalists in 2014.

He came to UW in 2004 from New Mexico State University, where he was a faculty member for 11 years. He was a postdoctoral fellow at both the University of British Columbia and Princeton University and received his doctorate from the State University of New York-Albany; a master’s degree from Northern Arizona University; and a bachelor’s degree from the University of California-Berkeley.