ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ at Boulder Professor William Lewis has been awarded the International Society of Limnology's highest honor for his lifetime contributions to scientific studies of lakes, ponds and rivers.
A professor in the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences and in the environmental, population and organismic biology department, Lewis was honored with the prestigious Einar Naumann-August Theinemann Medal at the 27th International Limnology Congress held in Dublin, Ireland, in August.
The former chair of the National Research Council's Wetlands Committee, Lewis was cited "for his extraordinary comprehensive analyses of the physical, chemical, and biological limnology of tropical rivers and lakes, regulation of ecosystem functions and the trenchant insights into the understanding of comparative regional limnology."
Lewis, who served as chair of the EPO biology department from 1990 to 1995, is director of CU-Boulder's Center for Limnology and an internationally known researcher in the study of aquatic ecosystems. Lewis and a team of CU-Boulder faculty and students have conducted extensive research on the ecology of the massive Orinoco River in Venezuela during the past decade.
He also served as chair of CU-Boulder's Council of Chairs for the College of Arts and Sciences from 1991 to 1995. Lewis came to CU in 1974 after earning a doctorate in zoology from the University of Indiana at Bloomington.
In 1996, he was named recipient of the Sustained Achievement Award by the Renewable Natural Resources Foundation of Bethesda, Md., for his work in advancing science and helping to manage and conserve Earth's natural resources.
He also served as chair of the NRC's Grand Canyon Environmental Oversight Committee and is a member of the National Research Council's Water Sciences and Technology Board.