Paula Williamson honored by Southwest Association of Naturalists

Posted by Jayme Blaschke
University News Service
May 18, 2009

Paula Williamson, a professor of biology at Texas State University-San Marcos, has been honored by the Southwestern Association of Naturalists with the 2009 Meritorious Service Award.
 
The Meritorious Service Award is presented to an individual who has contributed outstanding service to the Southwestern Association of Naturalists. The award recognizes service either in an official capacity such as committee membership or editorial responsibilities, or as volunteer service that furthers the aims of the association. The award has been presented only four times in the history of the Southwestern Association of Naturalists. The award was announced at the 2009 Annual Meeting of the Association in Monterrey, Nuevo León, Mexico.
 
Williamson received multiple nominations and a multitude of supporting letters from members both north and south of the Rio Grande. Williamson has been an active member of the Association throughout her career, and served as its president from 2001-2003. It was under Williamson’s direction that the ad hoc President’s Advisory Committee on Cross-Border Affairs was established, which guided SWAN in “more fully integrating our annual meetings and our publications, both culturally and linguistically, and thus help move our association toward a fundamental objective of being an international, or more properly non-national association, the membership of which practices biology without borders,” according to one letter of support.
 
The Southwestern Association of Naturalists is an international association of scientists, educators, and students, founded in 1953 to promote the field study of plants and animals (living and fossil) in the southwestern United States, Mexico and Central America. The award was announced at the annual meeting held in April at the Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León, Monterrey, Nuevo León, Mexico.
 
For further information, contact John L. Hunt, Chair, Public Relations and Publicity Committee, Southwestern Association of Naturalists, School of Mathematical and Natural Sciences, University of Arkansas-Monticello, Monticello AR 71656; (870) 460-1466; huntj@uamont.edu.