1992 Thomas Ledig
Dr. Thomas F. Ledig serves as a Full Professor and member of the Board of Permanent Officers at Yale University. He joined the U.S. Forest Service’s Pacific Southwest Research Station in 1979 as Director of the Institute of Forest Genetics, located in Berkeley and Placerville, California. Currently, Senior Scientist in the Pacific Southwest Research Station and adjunct professor at the University of California-Davis.
Dr. Ledig led two binational gene conservation projects – with Mexico and Australia. Served on the Policy Advisory Board of the University of California’s Genetic Resources Conservation Program (1987-92). He was a member of the scientific committee of the Bull Foundation for conservation (1992-95), was a member of the University of California-Davis Working Group on Conservation Biology and Agriculture (1988); participated in the Keystone National Policy Dialogue on Biological Diversity (1989-91); was a consultant for the National Academy of Science/National Research Council on management of forest genetic resources (1988-90) and for the Office of Technology Assessment on their report, “Preparing for an Uncertain Climate” (1992-93).
Dr. Ledig is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), and the Secretary (1985-) of the UN/FAO/North American Forest Commission’s Forest Genetic Resources Working Group. He is also a member of IUCN Species Survival Commission/Conifer Specialist Group; Society for Conservation Biology; International Society of Tropical Foresters; Botanical Society of America; California Botanical Society; Society of American Foresters; and American Society of Plant Taxonomists.
Dr. Ledig has over 120 publications in genetics and physiology. Honors: four Distinguished Publication awards (1983, 1988, 1992, 2001) and Milestone Publication award (2003) from the U.S. Forest Service’s Pacific Southwest Research Station, and its Outstanding Scientist award (1988); Schaffer Lecturer at the University of British Columbia (1988); Glaser Distinguished Professor at Florida International University (1992); Barrington Moore Memorial Award for outstanding achievement in biological research (1992) from the Society of American Foresters; Distinguished Services Award from the International Union of Forest Research Organizations (2000); elected AAAS Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science (2002); and North American Forest Commission award (2008).
His current research interests are in population genetics and evolution of Mexican and Californian conifers, the role of genetic diversity in natural populations, and conservation biology.
