Top Qs
Timeline
Chat
Perspective

Kimberly A. With

American ecologist From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Remove ads

Kimberly A. With is an American ecologist and conservation scientist known for her research into the ecological consequences of human-caused habitat loss, habitat fragmentation, and land management, especially in terms of how such landscape changes contribute to the loss of biodiversity, increased species' extinction risk, and invasive spread by non-native species. She is currently Professor Emerita in the Division of Biology at Kansas State University.

Quick facts Academic background, Education ...
Remove ads

Career

Summarize
Perspective

While an undergraduate at San Francisco State University, With began working as a summer research assistant on various bird-related projects at the Sagehen Creek Field Station and Blodgett Forest Research Station (the latter now part of Berkeley Forests) managed by the University of California, Berkeley in the Sierra Nevada range of California.[1]

After earning a Bachelor of Science in Biology in 1985, With went to Northern Arizona University in pursuit of a Master of Science degree. Her thesis research involved a comparative study of parental care in Western Bluebirds during the nestling and fledgling periods[2] and was published in the Canadian Journal of Zoology.[3]

Following her Master's degree, With went on for a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Zoology at Colorado State University. There, she was introduced to the emerging fields of landscape ecology and conservation biology, which subsequently influenced her research direction throughout her career.[4] Kimberly With was awarded a Ph.D. in 1993 for her dissertation on translating individual movement patterns across spatial scales to predict the resulting distribution of species within heterogeneous landscapes.[5] A paper from her dissertation on critical thresholds in species' responses to landscape structure was published in the journal Ecology in 1995[6] and was awarded "Outstanding Paper published in the Discipline of Landscape Ecology" by the U.S. Regional Chapter of the International Association for Landscape Ecology (US-IALE, now IALE-North America) in 1996.[7]

After receiving her Ph.D., With was awarded a prestigious U.S. Department of Energy Alexander Hollaender Distinguished Postdoctoral Fellowship to work with the landscape ecology group in the Environmental Sciences Division at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory for two years (1993-1995).[8] In 1995, she accepted a tenure-track faculty position at Bowling Green State University in Ohio, where she led experimental and theoretical investigations into how habitat loss versus fragmentation affected biodiversity and species' interactions (e.g., predator-prey and host-parasitoid relationships).[9] A paper she wrote during that time modeled how habitat loss and fragmentation influenced extinction risk in bird populations and was published in Biological Conservation.[10] In 2002, this paper received the "Award for Outstanding Paper published in Landscape Ecology" by the US-IALE (now IALE-North America), making her the only person to be awarded this distinction twice as first author.[7]

In 2000, With left Bowling Green State University to become an Assistant Professor in the Division of Biology at Kansas State University. She was tenured and promoted to Associate Professor in 2002 and to Full Professor in 2012.[4] Among her accomplishments there, she led a study to develop a regional assessment of population viability for grassland birds in the Flint Hills, which contain the largest intact tallgrass prairie landscape left in the world. The study, which was published in the journal Biological Conservation[11], found that several bird species are projected to be declining even though ample habitat still remains in this region.[12]

In 2016, With was the recipient of the Distinguished Landscape Ecologist Award from the US-International Association for Landscape Ecology (now IALE-North America).[13][14] This award highlights "those scholars whose scientific endeavors pervade [the] discipline and its continuing development and who have contributed positively to the professional and scholarly development of other landscape ecologists. This award is ordinarily given for outstanding contributions over a period of a decade or more, and it is the most prestigious honor bestowed by [the] Chapter."[7]

In 2019, With published a textbook, "Essentials of Landscape Ecology," through Oxford University Press.[15][16] This book was recognized in 2020 by the British Ecological Society with its "Book of the Year Award" sponsored by the Marsh Charitable Trust.[17]

Kimberly A. With is listed among the World's Top 2% Scientists.[18] Among the many positions she has held, she most recently served as the President of IALE-North America from 2022 to 2024.[19]

Remove ads

Selected publications

Remove ads

References

External links

Loading related searches...

Wikiwand - on

Seamless Wikipedia browsing. On steroids.

Remove ads
Remove ads