William J Mitsch

Dr. William J. “Bill” Mitsch has been Eminent Scholar and Director, Everglades Wetland Research Park, and Juliet C. Sproul Chair for Southwest Florida Habitat Restoration and Management at Florida Gulf Coast University since Fall 2012.  Before that he was Distinguished Professor at The Ohio State University where he taught for 26 years and was Founding Director of the Olentangy River Wetland Research Park. He also holds courtesy faculty appointments at University of Florida, University of Notre Dame, and University of South Florida. He received a Doctorate honoris causa from the University of Tartu, Estonia and an Einstein Professorship from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, both in 2010.  His research and teaching have focused on wetland ecology and biogeochemistry, wetland creation and restoration, ecological engineering and ecosystem restoration, and ecosystem modeling. His over 600 publications, reports, abstracts and books, include the 5th edition of the popular textbook Wetlands completed in April 2015. He is editor-in-chief of the international journal Ecological Engineering which he founded in 1992. He was awarded the 2004 Stockholm Water Prize by King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden. He has also been awarded the Ramsar Convention Award for Merit (2015), the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Society of Wetland Scientists (2007), and the Theodore M. Sperry Award from the Society for Ecological Restoration International (2005). Dr. Mitsch has advised to completion with thesis or dissertation 74 graduate students, including 24 Ph.D. students, and 13 post-docs. Seventeen of his former graduate students and post-docs are currently teaching in colleges and universities around the USA and world.