Fisher's Brian Fath wins Prigogine Medal for work on ecological systems

Jess & Mildred Fisher College of Science and Mathematics professor Brian Fath has been awarded the 2016 Prigogine Medal, given each year to a leading scientist in the field of ecological systems.

Fath is one of 12 scientists from eight different countries to have won the award since its creation in 2004. The award ceremony will occur on July 13, 2016 at the University of Alicante in Spain.

Aside from his duties as professor in the Department of Biological Sciences, Fath is a research scholar within the advanced systems analysis program at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis in Laxenburg, Austria. His research is in the area of systems ecology and network analysis applied to the sustainability and resilience of socio-ecological systems. 

He holds visiting faculty appointments at the School of Environment, Beijing Normal University and at the State Key Laboratory of Urban and Regional Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences - both in Beijing, China. Fath was also a Fulbright Distinguished Chair at Parthenope University of Naples, Italy.

He has published numerous research papers, reports, and book chapters and co-authored three books. Fath is editor-in-chief for the journal "Ecological Modelling," president of the North American Chapter of International Society for Ecological Modelling and, among other appointments, a member and past chair of the Baltimore County Commission in Environmental Quality.

The Prigogine Medal honors the memory of Ilya Prigogine, a Nobel Prize winner for chemistry, whose work on the role of time in the physical sciences and biology established the basis for ecological systems research.