The Davis Division of the Academic Senate recently selected Alan Hastings for the 2007 Faculty Research Lecturer Award. Hastings is a Distinguished Professor of Environmental Science and Policy, and served as chair of that department from 1992 to 1998.

"Alan has been one of the leading forces in theoretical ecology for decades, and has helped lay the foundation for scientifically based agriculture and resource management," wrote Professor Howard Cornell, chair of Environmental Science and Policy, in nominating Hastings for the senate award.

"He has gained considerable recognition for his ability to combine a strong mathematical approach with an unusually deep understanding of biological questions, including questions in applied population ecology."

Hastings, who joined the UC Davis faculty in 1979, is an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and last year received ecology's most prestigious honor, the Robert H. MacArthur Award, given by the Ecological Society of America.

Hastings is scheduled to deliver his award lecture on May 1; other plans to honor him that day had not been finalized as of press time. As the date draws closer, Dateline plans to publish an article on Hastings' career and accomplishments.

— Dave Jones