William J. Mitsch, Ph.D.
Eminent Scholar and Director, Everglades Wetland Research Park
Juliet C. Sproul Chair for Southwest Florida Habitat Restoration and Management, Florida Gulf Coast University
Professor Emeritus, Environment and Natural Resources, The Ohio State University
B.S., Engineering, University of Notre Dame
M.E. and Ph.D., Environmental Engineering Science and Systems Ecology, University of Florida
Before moving to Florida in October 2012, he was at Ohio State for 27 years including 20 years as Director of the Olentangy River Wetland Research Park and 15 years as Distinguished Professor in the College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences. Before that he taught at Illinois Institute of Technology and University of Louisville. Dr. Mitsch holds a B.S. in engineering from University of Notre Dame and an M.E. and Ph.D. in environmental engineering science and systems ecology at University of Florida. His research and teaching have focused on wetland ecology and biogeochemistry, wetland creation and restoration, ecological engineering and ecosystem restoration, and ecosystem modeling. His research over the last 2 years has been supported primarily by the National Science Foundation and the South Florida Water Management District. He has collaborated in research, teaching and service with teams in China, Korea, Denmark, Sweden, Estonia, France, Spain, Egypt, Jordan, Botswana, Costa Rica, and Brazil.
Dr. Mitsch has authored or co-authored almost 600 peer-reviewed papers, editorials, meeting proceeding chapters, encyclopedia entries, book reviews, published abstracts, research reports, and other publications including authorship or editorship of 18 books. The authored books including 4 editions of the popular textbook Wetlands. He is editor-in-chief of the international journal Ecological Engineering, which he started in 1992. He has served on four committees of the National Research Council, National Academy of Sciences, the U.S. EPA Science Advisory Board (SAB) and its committees, review teams for the Swedish MISTRA (Foundation for Strategic Environmental Research), and several advisory panels for Louisiana Delta and Florida Everglades restorations. In 1994-2002 he chaired a SCOPE committee on Ecological Engineering and Ecosystem Restoration based in Paris and in 1997-2000 he chaired a national committee to determine solutions to the Gulf of Mexico hypoxia. He is past-president of the Society of Wetland Scientists and is founder and was first president of the American Ecological Engineering Society (AEES). He was Chair of the 1992 INTECOL Wetland Conference and EcoSummit 2012, both held in Columbus USA.
Dr Mitsch’s awards include two Fulbrights (University of Copenhagen, Denmark and University of Botswana, Maun Botswana), the U.S. EPA National Award for Wetland Research (1996), a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) (1997), Distinguished Scholar Award at The Ohio State University (1998), Theodore M. Sperry Career Award from the Society of Ecological Restoration International (2005), the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Society of Wetland Scientists (2007), an Einstein Professorship from the Chinese Academy of Sciences (2010), and a Doctorate honoris causa from University of Tartu, Estonia (2010). In August 2004 he was awarded, along with his Denmark friend Sven Erik Jørgensen, the 2004 Stockholm Water Prize by King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden for lifetime achievements in the modeling, management, and conservation of lakes and wetlands.