At the 14th International Symposium in Stockholm the IPA honored the lives of the following, for their lifetime contributions to paleolimnology:
Dan Livingstone Dan Livingstone passed away on Sunday March 6th, 2016. Dan left an enormous legacy of scientific endeavor as a pioneer of paleolimnological research. He was the inventor of the Livingstone piston sample, still the standard lightweight coring rig used by many of us, and gave us important limnological histories from Alaska to Africa. More importantly he was a wonderful human being, friend, and mentor.
Jonathan “Joe” Richardson A Fulbright scholar, he earned a Masters from the University of New Zealand in 1960, and completed his PhD at Duke University in 1964. For his dissertation he collected and studied lake sediment cores and water samples in East Africa with his professor, Dan Livingstone, then joined colleagues in reconstructing East African climates for the past 30,000 years. This research allowed some of the first historical comparisons of tropical climate with post-glacial climates of Eurasia and North America. Joe began teaching at Franklin and Marshall College, Lancaster, PA, in 1966 and retired in 1999 as Dr. E. Paul and Frances E. Reiff Professor of Biology Emeritus. He designed a summer travel course on the biology of the Susquehanna River and its watershed, taking his students from its headwaters in Cooperstown down its course to the Chesapeake Bay. He was a beloved teacher and mentor who inspired many to undertake careers in environmental work.
Paul Colinaux Paul A. Colinvaux passed away on Sunday, February 28th, 2016. Paul was a student of Dan Livingstone at Duke University, where he met his wife Llewellya Hillis. He completed post-doctoral research under the guidance of G.E. Hutchinson and E.S. Deevey at Yale University, and he was honored to be part of the Hutchinsonian lineage. Paul’s research took him to remote lake sites in the Arctic and the neotropics, where he and his colleagues and students reconstructed among the first paleoclimate records for these areas. Paul was an ecologist, palynologist, explorer, inventor, a great orator, and a gifted writer. His career included academic appointments at The Ohio State University, the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (Panama), and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution/Marine Biological Laboratory. Avocationally, Paul was an avid rower and woodworker. Paul was a wise mentor, a valued colleague, and a friend who will be very much missed.
Herb Wright Herb Wright passed away Thursday 12 November 2015. He celebrated his 98th birthday on September 13, 2015. Herb was one of our inaugural winners of the International Paleolimnology Association (IPA) Lifetime Achievement Awards in Mexico in 2009. Herbert E. Wright, Jr. was among the world’s most productive and highly recognized Quaternary scientists. He led a remarkable scientific career that has touched on many of the pivotal questions of recent earth history, he mentored and inspired more than 70 graduate students and numerous visiting scholars from around the globe, and he had been the recipient of many of the highest awards in his field. As part of the IPA award, Herb published a summary of his career in the J. Paleolimnology at: Wright, H. E. 2010. High points in paleolimnological studies as viewed by a convert. J. Paleolimnology 44: 497-503. doi.org/10.1007/s10933-010-9431-7 He will be very much missed by our community.
Elizabeth Gierlowski Kordesch It is with great sadness that I share news of the passing of Elizabeth Gierlowski-Kordesch. Most of you know Beth as an Associate Editor of Journal of Paleolimnology, a position when she has held for many years. She was a prominent lake geoscientist with many interdisciplinary accomplishments. Beth’s publications and editorial activities reflect a wide array of scholarly interests that span the globe. Throughout her career, Beth mentored and encouraged many of us to pursue science. She tirelessly gave her time to the discipline of lake research — Beth co-founded the Limnogeology Division of the Geological Society of America and offered the International Association of Limnogeology (IAL) her leadership and maintained its headquarters at Ohio University. She was a great and loyal friend to many of us and will be greatly missed.
Giuseppe Morabito Giuseppe Morabito, a phytoplankton researcher, died at the age of 53, leaving his wife Paola and two very young girls. He fought cancer for about 3 years. A treasured colleague quiet and friendly,helpful, not boastful, and competent. Giuseppe published with colleagues the paper by Taranu et al. on cyanobacteria, in Ecology Letters. Before his passing he attended and closed a Project called Blasco (please, watch this video, good for students on cyanobacteria distribution observed from satellites; http://www.cnrweb.tv/le-fioriture-algali-monitorate-dallo-spazio/