On Wednesday, May 28th, Athens welcomed back the American Ecological Engineering Society for its 25th annual meeting. The meeting, which was first held in Athens in 2001, drew a crowd of over 220 participants from around the world.
Honoring those whose shoulders we stand on
This gathering was especially sentimental due to the passing of the society’s first president, Dr. William Mitsch. Mitsch’s former colleagues Lauren Griffiths and Kyle Boutin spoke to Mitsch’s immense impact on the field of ecological engineering.
The Odum brothers–Eugeune Odum, who was the founder of the University of Georgia’s Odum School of Ecology, and Howard (H.T.) Odum, who introduced the term “ecological engineering”–were also honored for their contributions to the field.
AEES annually grants their highest honor, the Odum Award, to a member with great contributions to research, education, and practice in the field of Ecological Engineering. At this year’s meeting, the honor went to Dr. Cully Hession, a professor of biological systems engineering at Virginia Tech who has served as a mentor to dozens of AEES members and students.
Also recognized were the newest AEES Fellows, an honor given to AEES members who “are leaders in their discipline and accomplished members of our Society, have dedicated substantial effort and resources towards the betterment of the discipline, and demonstrate evidence that they will make a positive contribution for the society in their role as a Fellow.” The honorees included IRIS Director Brian Bledsoe, who accepted the honor with an ecological engineering-themed tune.
Returning to resilience
Across 31 sessions and three plenary talks, speakers and attendees continually looked to the future: how ecological engineering education can benefit future practitioners, how to better utilize resources across project life cycles, how to unify benefits to nature and economics across landscapes, and how to move forward from threats to resilient development.
Odum School of Ecology professor and IRIS affiliate Dr. Amy Rosemond gave the third and final keynote talk on the second day of the conference, marking the halfway point in the week’s events with a look ahead at the long road to an ecologically sound future. Rosemond spoke frankly about concerns that the whole auditorium seemed to echo and offered the directive to use the natural world as a mentor.
Celebrating 25 years
The annual AEES meeting returned to Athens with several traditions, from custom commemorative shirts to the ceremonial transfer of power from 2024-2025 President Eric Roy to 2025-2026 President Mauricio Arias during the final day of the conference.
From field trips to award speeches, the meeting carried a clear air of friendship among colleagues and collaborators. Our team at IRIS thanks the many people who contributed to make this conference not just successful, but fun and full of optimism.
