Stephen T. Jackson (Steve), Scientist Emeritus and former Director of the Southwest and South Central Climate Adaptation Centers, was recently honored with the American Quaternary Association's (AMQUA) 2023 Distinguished Career Award (DCA), which recognizes a senior scientist who has contributed significantly and continuously to the advancement of Quaternary science in North America.  Steve was nominated by Julio Betancourt (USGS Scientist Emeritus), I. Colin Prentice (Imperial College London), and Jack W. Williams (University of Wisconsin).

Sources/Usage: Public Domain. View Media Details

Steve’s career spanned professorships at Northern Arizona University (1990-1995) and the University of Wyoming (1995-2012), and he worked for the USGS from 2012 until 2023, when he retired from federal service. AMQUA has bestowed Steve with its highest award for his original and integrative studies of how plants have changed their ranges over space and time in response to climate, and how they may change in the future. Recipients of the 2023 and 2024 Distinguished Career Award and other awardees were recognized at the 2024 AMQUA Biennial meeting August 7-11 in Salt Lake City, UT. 

Stephen T. Jackson is Scientist Emeritus at the U.S. Geological Survey. His last assignment at USGS was serving as Senior Science Advisor on Biodiversity to the USGS National Climate Adaptation Science Center, including organizing the trinational North American Assessment of Biodiversity and Climate Change. Until early 2022, he was Director of the Department of the Interior Southwest and South Central Climate Adaptation Science Centers, partnerships between USGS and multi-university consortia respectively led by the University of Arizona and the University of Oklahoma. In all these positions, he worked to foster effective engagement between researchers and natural-resource decision-makers. He is also Adjunct Professor of Geosciences and of Natural Resources & Environment at the University of Arizona. Before joining USGS in 2012, he was at the University of Wyoming, where he was founding Director of the Program in Ecology and is now Professor Emeritus of Botany.

Sources/Usage: Some content may have restrictions. View Media Details

Throughout his career, Jackson’s scientific research has focused on using the past 25,000 years of earth history as a source of natural experiments to explore ecological responses to environmental changes of various kinds, rates, and magnitudes. His paleoecological and paleoclimatic work utilized lake, peatland, woodrat-midden, and tree-ring records from across North America, notably the Adirondack Mountains, the western Great Lakes region, the unglaciated southeastern USA, the central Rockies, and the Colorado Plateau. In the past two decades his professional efforts expanded to include natural-resource conservation and climate-change adaptation. His interests also include the history of science, and he has edited two English translations of classic works by Alexander von Humboldt (Essay on the Geography of Plants, and Views of Nature).  He has served on editorial boards for ten ecological journals, and recently stepped down after eight years on the Board of Reviewing Editors for Science.

He is staying active in his retirement by working part-time for DoD's SERDP/ESTCP environmental research programs as a senior technical expert on biodiversity and climate resilience, and serving as a Coordinating Lead Author for the USGS-led North American Biodiversity and Climate Change Assessment.  He continues working on various scientific and scholarly papers on conservation, paleoecology, and history of science. 

In his spare time you'll find him hiking, birding, botanizing, and riding Quiebro, his chestnut Andalusian.

Previous USGS scientists who have received the AMQUA Distinguished Career Award include Estella Leopold, Julio Betancourt, Kenneth Pierce, and David Hopkins.