We are saddened to report that Stanley Dodson passed away Sunday, August 23, 2009 after a tragic bicycle accident in Colorado. Stanley had been a North Temperate Lakes (NTL) PI since 1996.
Professor Dodson received his PhD from the Zoology Department of the University of Washington in 1970, having focused on size-selective predator-prey interactions and zooplankton community structure. His graduate work built on the landmark paper by Brooks and Dodson (1965), done while Stanley was an undergraduate at Yale. He joined the Department of Zoology at University of Wisconsin in 1970, and retired earlier this year after a long and productive career.
Stanley's research covered a breadth of topics, including population ecology of Daphnia, zooplankton community dynamics, kairomones in planktonic species, ecotoxicology and bioassessment. His recent NTL research addressed the effects of land use on zooplankton communities and productivity-diversity relationships in lakes. His broad interests in ecology and teaching led to publication of a multi-authored text (Dodson 1998) and an assemblage of key readings in ecology (Dodson 1999). His interests in freshwater ecosystems led to the publication of a textbook on Limnology (Dodson 2005). One of his important contributions at Wisconsin was a course that guided undergraduates into ecology internships.
Stanley had an exceptional joie de vivre. He relished his role as an advisor and teacher, often taking unconventional and memorable approaches to engaging students and getting them to appreciate the natural world. As he wrote in the introduction to his Limnology text book, "There is even room for the occasional poem or story about a beautiful lake or stream." Stanley's last seminar in the department was entitled "Widening Ripples," his way of nudging us all to think about the ripples that radiate away from our own lives to others and the world around us. The "ripples" of Stanley's life have left a lasting legacy. He will be sorely missed.
Citations
Brooks, J.L. and S.I. Dodson, 1965. Predation, body size, and composition of plankton. Science 150 (3692): 28-35.
Dodson, S. I (ed.). 1998. Ecology. Oxford Univ. Press, New York.
Dodson, S. I. (ed.). 1999. Readings in Ecology. Oxford Univ. Press, New York.
Dodson, S.I. 2005. Introduction to Limnology, McGraw-Hill, New York.