Aldo Leopold Memorial Award

The highest honor bestowed by The Wildlife Society is the Aldo Leopold Memorial Award for distinguished service to wildlife conservation. The basic selection criterion is the significance of an individual’s contribution(s) to the wildlife field. Recipients receive a medal, plaque, and honorary membership in The Wildlife Society.

Following Aldo Leopold's death in April 1948, there was much sentiment within The Wildlife Society for establishing an award medal in his memory.

President Storer instructed the Awards Committee to develop a proposal for presentation at the annual meeting in 1949. The report was approved by the membership and published in The Journal of Wildlife Management (13[3]:331, 1949).

The next year, sculptor Gifford MacGregor Proctor was commissioned to design and execute models for a suitable medal in bronze bearing a likeness of Aldo Leopold on the obverse. Although the art work was not ready, the first medal was awarded to J.N. Darling at the Society's 1950 meeting in San Francisco.

Models were finished that year and dies were cast early in 1951. After the 1951 meeting, one medal was presented privately to Mrs. Aldo Leopold as a token of friendship and respect.

An engraved medal was sent (a year late) to J.N. Darling, and a second annual presentation was made to Carl D. Shoemaker.

Criteria

1. The nominee should have a well-established and distinguished career that has been of undoubted significance to the cause of wildlife conservation.
2. The award is given only to an individual.
3. Nominee must be living.

Nomination Instructions

Nominations consist of a statement emphasizing the basis for determining “distinguished service to wildlife conservation,” a detailed resume, and no more than five supporting letters.

Email all materials as a single PDF file to yanin@wildlife.org by March 15, 2013.

Previous Winners

Read the winners' biographies.