1. Honors and awards

Notable awards include:


  1. World-Class Teamwork Award by the Oak Ridge National Laboratory Values Committee, with F.M. Hoffman, for the construction of the Stone Soupercomputer – October 1999

  2. Honorable Mention for Outstanding Paper in the Discipline of Landscape Ecology for 1999 by the International Association of Landscape Ecology (IALE) for “Using Multivariate Clustering to Characterize Ecoregion Borders,” Hargrove and Hoffman (1999) - April 2000

  3. Outstanding Paper in the Discipline of Landscape Ecology by the International Association of Landscape Ecology (IALE) for Hargrove, W.W., F.M. Hoffman, and P.M. Schwartz. 2002. A Fractal Landscape Realizer for generating synthetic maps. Conservation Ecology 6(1): 2. [online] – April 2004

  4. Oak Ridge National Laboratory Significant Event Award (SEA) for FY 2006 for providing an initial statistical design for the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) by performing a Multivariate Geographic Clustering (MGC) analysis of the lower 48 United States based on nine climatic variables from which the official national map of 20 NEON domains was developed. This analysis makes NEON the first national-scale ecological network that has been statistically designed before deployment. ORNL SEAs recognize individual and team contributions to the Laboratory - March 2006

  5. Stanley I. Auerbach Award for Excellence in Environmental Science for 2005. The Auerbach Award is the highest scientific achievement award presented by the Oak Ridge National Laboratory Environmental Sciences Division to recognize a staff member who has “sustained, high-quality, creative scientific contributions in support of basic research” conducted during the five-year period preceding the award (award presentation, acceptance presentation, plaque, certificate, poster) - April 2006

  6. Gold Medal of the Peoples’ Choice Awards at the 2008 Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Science Team Meeting in Norfolk, VA for a poster titled “A Cluster Analysis Approach to Comparing Atmospheric Radiation (ARM) Data and Global Climate Model (GCM) Results." description of the award

  7. “Most Exciting Science” Award for our poster, entitled “Assessing Forest Tree Risk of Genetic Degradation from Climate Change”, by W.W. Hargrove, K.M. Potter, and F.H. Koch, presented at the Annual Forest Service Forest Health Monitoring (FHM) Work Group meeting held in Albuquerque, New Mexico – April 2010

  8. “Best Graphics” Award for our poster, entitled “Monitoring 2009 Forest Disturbance Across the Conterminous United States, Based on Near-Real Time and Historical MODIS 250 Meter NDVI Products”, by W.W. Hargrove, J. Spruce, G. Gasser, J. Smoot, and P. Kuper, presented at the Annual Forest Service Forest Health Monitoring (FHM) Work Group meeting held in Albuquerque, New Mexico – April 2010

  9. “Best Graphics” Award for our poster, entitled "Example 2011 Forest Disturbance Detections Using MODIS Satellite Data Products Resident to the US Forest Service ForWarn System”, by W.W. Hargrove, J. Spruce, G. Gasser, J. Smoot, and P. Kuper., presented at the Forest Service Forest Health Monitoring (FHM) Work Group meeting held in Tucson, AZ – April 2012

  10. Poster, “Long-Term Post-Wildfire Monitoring of Phenology and Recovery Using a MODIS Time Series,” won Honorable Mention at the Map Gallery People’s Choice Awards, ESRI Forestry GIS Conference, ESRI Headquarters, Redlands, CA – May 2012

  11. “Best Communication Product” Award, 1st Place, for our poster, entitled “The Tornado Outbreak of April 11, 2011 Recorded by the USDA Forest Service’s Forest Change Assessment Viewer”, presented at the ESRI International Users Conference held in San Diego, CA – July 2012

  12. The ForWarn team, consisting of employees of four different U.S. Government Agencies (USDA FS, NASA Stennis Space Center, USGS EROS, and DOE ORNL), was selected by Dr. Rob Doudrick, Director of the Southern Research Station, to receive the 2012 Southern Research Station Director's Award for Excellence in Science Delivery. The award was presented to the entire ForWarn team in a ceremony at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences in Raleigh, NC – award trophy, award plaque – The Team also received a $3000 monetary award for project use - October 2012

  13. The Federal Laboratory Consortium for Technology Transfer (FLC) honored the ForWarn team at the national level with its 2013 Interagency Partnership Award, which recognizes outstanding collaborative work across government agencies in technology transfer and is one of the highest honors from the FLC. ForWarn representatives personally received the award in a ceremony – December 2012

  14. In December 2012, the ForWarn Team received the Oak Ridge National Laboratory Computational Science and Mathematics Division Most Distinguished Scientific/Technical Contribution Award

  15. In January 2013, the ForWarn Team was selected as a recipient of the FLC's Southeast Region’s 2013 Partnership Award – (trophy, certificate, compass article) - The two FLC awards highlight the unusual degree of 4-way interagency cooperation in ForWarn, which is not a simple one-time alignment, but a set of substantive and ongoing collaborations demanded by a recurring ForWarn production line repeating every 8 days – January 2013

  16. In April 2013, our international collaborator Dr. Yasemin Erguner was awarded a US-International Association of Landscape Ecology (IALE) Foreign Scholar Travel Award to attend the US-IALE Annual Meeting in Austin, TX and present co-authored research results. This was one of four such IALE Travel Awards given in 2013

  17. In June 2013, the ForWarn Team was awarded a NASA Group Achievement Award (award letter). The award was presented to ForWarn representatives in a ceremony at the Stennisphere Auditorium at the NASA Stennis Space Center in Mississippi on July 12, 2013.

  18. In June 2013, our international collaborator Dr. Yasemin Erguner was awarded a 1-year postdoctoral appointment, funded by the Turkish government. Her postdoctoral tenure began in September 2013, and she was housed at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Oak Ridge, TN

  19. In July 2013, all USDA members of the ForWarn Team received letters from Thomas J. Vilsack, the Secretary of Agriculture, congratulating them on behalf of the United States Department of Agriculture for being selected to receive the 2013 Interagency Partnership Award from the Federal Laboratory Consortium for Technology Transfer. All DOE ORNL members of the ForWarn Team received a similar letter from Ernest Moniz, the Secretary of Energy, congratulating them on behalf of the Department of Energy. ForWarn Team members at the NASA Stennis Space Center received a congratulatory letter from Representative Steven Palazzo, House of Representatives, 4th District, Mississippi

  20. In November 2013, the ForWarn Team was selected to receive the 2013 Southern Research Station Director’s Partnership Award “For the outstanding collaborative work across government agencies in the development of ForWarn, an effective forest disturbance monitoring tool useful at the National level” – The Director’s Award, including a trophy and individual inscribed business card holders, was presented in a Virtual Awards Ceremony at the Station on December 11, 2013. The Team was also awarded $1500 for project use.

  21. In December 2013, the ForWarn Team was selected to receive the Chief’s Honor Award from Thomas L. Tidwell, the Chief of the United States Department of Agriculture Forest Service, for “helping to preserve and enhance the nations forests and grasslands” (list of awards, award cover letter) – The Awards were presented in a Ceremony on Monday, March 18, 2014 in Washington, DC

  22. In May 2014, the US-International Association of Landscape Ecology (IALE) selected our paper, “Representativeness-Based Sampling Network Design for the Arctic” for their Most Outstanding Paper in Landscape Ecology for 2014 Award – award was presented at the US-IALE meeting in Anchorage, AK - award photo, news article, link to winning paper

  23. In April 2016, awarded a US-International Association for Landscape Ecology (IALE) Certificate of Appreciation “for outstanding service to the US-International Association for Landscape Ecology as local host (2016)” for organizing, hosting and conducting the 2016 US-IALE annual meeting, with over 500 attendees in two Asheville hotels

  24. Received the 2016 Chief’s Award for “Sustaining Forests and Grasslands” as part of a team of four editors and more than 70 scientific experts who developed a national drought assessment which was published in 2016. Effects of Drought on Forests and Rangelands in the United States: A Comprehensive Science Synthesis provides a scientific foundation for management that promotes well-adapted, resilient forests. The report includes a chapter that discusses the fundamental challenges of detecting and monitoring drought impacts at broad scales, equally co-authored by EFETAC research ecologists Steve Norman, Frank Koch, and Bill Hargrove – Compass Live article here

  25. Recognized as the 2017 U.S.-International Association for Landscape Ecology - US-IALE Distinguished Landscape Ecologist - April 11, 2017 - Baltimore, MD - From the North American Regional Association of the International Association for Landscape Ecology web page:

“The Award for Distinguished Landscape Ecologist is given for distinguished scientific contribution to the field of landscape ecology. The intent of this award is to specifically recognize those unique individuals whose thinking and writing have helped to shape the field of landscape ecology. This award highlights those scholars whose scientific endeavors pervade our discipline and its continuing development. This award is ordinarily given for outstanding scientific achievement over a period of a decade or more, and it is the most prestigious honor bestowed by the International Association of Landscape Ecology.”

Hargrove's notification letter read:

"As you know, this award is the most prestigious honor bestowed by our society. This was an easy decision for us, based on the strength of your nomination and our personal knowledge of your long-term scientific contributions that have helped to shape the field of landscape ecology."

USDA Forest Service News report - link to past awardees – April 2017

  1. In 2015, we successfully proposed sites that were selected for the upcoming Vegetation and Environment monitoring on a New Micro-Satellite (VENµS) satellite mission – An Israeli Space Agency (ISA)-designed microsatellite, teamed with the French space agency Centre national d'études spatiales (CNES) – The VENµS Team selected 10 of our 13 proposed sites for imaging – 10% of the 105 sites/images will be our sites – VENµS will deliver us daily images, and will maintain near-polar sun-synchronous orbit with constant sun/sensor geometry, permitting new types of forest monitoring, despite thick tropical clouds – ~5m resolution multi-spectral - a 2-year mission – tropical sites include Luquillo, Puerto Rico, Barro Colorado, Panama, three Manaus Brazil sites, a western Amazon site, two Malaysian sites, and three Indonesian sites, including two tropical forest sites in Borneo – May 2017

  2. Awarded Adjunct Faculty status by unanimous vote at Rank of Full Professor within the Geography Department at the University of Tennessee Knoxville – https://geography.utk.edu/about-us/faculty/ – September 2017

  3. Awarded the 2017 Southern Research Station Director’s Distinguished Scientist Award – “For sustained, high-quality, creative scientific contributions in support of research, including leadership in ForWarn, ForeCASTS, and LanDAT projects. Your work is a credit to the Forest Service, the Southern Research Station, and the larger research community.” – Award announcement letter – Personal notification letter - described in Forest ThreatNet Fall 2017 – December 2017

  4. The HiForM website, showcasing our High-Resolution Forest Disturbance Mapping, was selected by Dr. Rob Doudrick, Director of the Southern Research Station, to receive the 2019 Southern Research Station Director's Award for Excellence in Science Delivery. The award and trophy were accepted in a July 2019 ceremony (video) to the entire HiForM Team – also received a $3000 award for project use - June 2019

  5. Cash Performance Awards:
    Hired in October 2006
    2008     $2,000
    2010 $2,500
    2012 $3,000
    2014 $1,000
    2015 $300
    2017 $800
    2018 3 separate Awards totaling $3,000