Botanical Society of America Honors Botanist Kingsley Stern
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 11, 2006
Kathleen McPartland
530-898-4260
Botanical Society of America Honors Botanist Kingsley Stern
The Botanical Society of America (BSA) has honored Professor Emeritus Kingsley Stern, Department of Biological Sciences, with the Centennial Award. The award acknowledges and honors Stern's outstanding service to the plant sciences and BSA.
Professor Stern taught at California State University, Chico from 1961 until his retirement in 1994. He was the director of the Biological Sciences Herbarium for 30 years. Following retirement, he continued on a voluntary basis until Kristina Schierenbeck, PhD was appointed to replace him.
During Stern's years as director, the herbarium collection grew from 2,800 specimens to more than 71,000 specimens. He was honored in November 1998 with the Distinguished Service Award from the Friends of the Herbarium.
Stern introduced six different botany courses into the curriculum while he was at CSU, Chico and was named Outstanding Professor in 1993. He authored the botany textbook "Introductory Plant Biology," which is in its 10th edition and is still used at universities and colleges across North America.
His other contributions to botany include several research grants from the National Science Foundation, including one to study pollen at the Swedish National Pollen Laboratory in Stockholm; contributions to the new "Flora of North America"; and contributions to a life sciences encyclopedia developed by Microsoft.
Stern received his undergraduate education at Wheaton College, where he majored in botany. He received an MA from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, and a PhD from the University of Minnesota at Minneapolis.
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