Gibbons wins herpetology award

For the past four decades, Whit Gibbons worked with hundreds of graduate students as the senior research ecologist at the Savannah River Ecology Laboratory (SREL), and many of them now have students of their own.

“I guess that makes me their academic grandfather,” Gibbons said with a laugh.

Now mostly retired, the former ecology professor with the University of Georgia was named recently as the winner of the inaugural Meritorious Teaching Award in Herpetology. He received the award at the Joint Meeting of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists in Providence, R.I.

According to a press release, Gibbons was cited for his superior teaching effectiveness and mentoring of students. He also has made significant contributions to herpetological education in the classroom and in mentoring student research efforts.

“What makes it unique at the Savannah River Site is the protected field areas where we can study things,” Gibbons said. “You can leave expensive equipment around a lake or forest. An alligator might bother it, but no one will shoot it with a shotgun or steal it.”

He was nominated by his final graduate students, J.D. Willson and Kimberly Andrews. In their nominating letter, the biologists described how Gibbons’ knowledge, enthusiasm and innovative hands-on teaching style have prompted hundreds of students to pursue careers in herpetology.

Gibbons’ award also honored his long-term studies with amphibians, snakes and especially turtles. He taught classes once a year or so at the University of Georgia, but he has truly relished the opportunity to share the field work with his students.

“We had some (students) with previous field experience, but others didn’t get it until they got here,” Gibbons said. “There was a guy from Kansas who had never seen the ocean.”

Gibbons still comes to SREL most days to work with the educational outreach program he established nearly two decades ago. Those presentations – whether to third-graders or civic clubs – are intended to get people’s attention so he and other scientists can talk about research and conservation.

“As scientists, we try to communicate with other scientists,” he said. “But it’s important to communicate with other people, too. They’re the ones who pay for much of this research, and we have an obligation to let them know what we’re finding out.”

Contact Rob Novit at

rnovit@aikenstandard.com

or at 644-2391.