The Lakeside Lab Parker/Gentry Scholarship in Conservation Biology is named for the late Theodore A. Parker III and Alwyn Gentry, outstanding conservation biologists. Parker, an ornithologist, and Gentry, a botanist, were killed August 3, 1993 when their light plane crashed into a mountainside as they were making a treetop survey of an Ecuadorian cloud forest. Parker was the world’s expert on Neotropical bird songs, able to recognize over 4,000 species. Gentry was the world’s expert on Neotropical trees species, comprising fully 1/6th of all the world’s woody plants. These men were irreplaceable.
Beginning in 1996, The Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago began offering its Parker/Gentry Award, an international award that honors an outstanding individual, team or organization in the field of conservation biology whose efforts have had a significant impact on preserving the world's natural heritage and whose actions and approach can serve as a model to others.
Dr. Michael Lannoo received the 2001 Parker/Gentry Award. The Lakeside Lab Parker/Gentry Scholarship in Conservation Biology is made possible by the donation of this 2001 award to the Friends of Lakeside Lab.
Dr. Lannoo is a long-time associate of Lakeside Lab. He attended Lakeside Lab first as an undergraduate student (‘77–’78), then as a graduate student (‘80–’81). He has been a member of the Lakeside Lab faculty since 1988. He currently teaches Lakeside’s Conservation Biology Course.
The Lakeside Lab Parker/Gentry Scholarship in Conservation Biology awardees are determined on the basis of merit and need by an ad hoc committee composed of Friends of Lakeside Lab members in consultation with Dr. Lannoo. No scholarship application is required.
