UF Botany Professor Francis E. "Jack" Putz was recently awarded the 2004-2009 Prince Bernhard Chair for International Conservation at Utrecht University in The Netherlands. Dr. Putz's research focuses on the ecological basis of forest management in the tropics and in temperate zones, and he is one of the world's foremost authorities in this area. He currently has research underway locally and in the Bolivian Amazon, but has worked throughout Latin America as well as in southern Africa. He has published more than 200 research articles, essays, and reviews, and popular magazine articles on conservation issues. Over the next five years Dr. Putz will participate in the academic program in Utrecht, conduct collaborative research in the tropics, and present lectures at various universities in Europe. His predecessors in this prestigious position were Professors Norman Myers and Jeffrey Sayer, both global conservation leaders from the U.K.
Dr. Putz was awarded the Charles Bullard Fellowship from Harvard University. Dr. Putz is also UF's Teacher of the Year for 2004-2005.
