A Centennial History of the Ecological Society of America

Frank N. Egerton studied biology as an undergraduate at Duke University, and then studied ecology for a year at North Carolina State University, Raleigh, before moving to the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he earned a Ph.D. in history of science. He taught introductory biology at Boston University for three years, then spent four years at the Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation, Carnegie-Mellon University, where he edited Edward Lee Greene's Landmarks of Botanical History (2 vols., Stanford University Press, 1983). He moved to the University of Wisconsin-Parkside in 1970 and taught history of science and environmental history until he retired in 2005. He has also published Hewett Cottrell Watson: Victorian Plant Ecologist and Evolutionist (Ashgate, 2003) and Roots of Ecology: Antiquity to Haeckel (University of California Press, 2012). As an emeritus professor, he continues to write an online history of ecology in the ESA's quarterly Bulletin.

Ecological Society of America History: Introduction. 1914 to 1929: Origins. 1930 to 1944: Challenges. 1945 to 1959: Expansion. 1960 to 1974: The International Biological Program (IBP), The Institute of Ecology, and Others. 1975 to 1989: The International Biological Program (Concluded), the Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) Network, Ecosystems, Profeßional Certification, and Gender. 1990 to 2004: New Journals, the Sustainable Biosphere Initiative (SBI), Strategies for Education in Ecology, Development, and Sustainability (SEEDS), and More. 2005 to 2015: A Sustainable Biosphere and the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON). ESA History: Conclusions. Appendix A: Ecological Society of America (ESA) Officers. Appendix B: Seven of the ESA Awards. ESA Bibliography.