AEES Fellows Program
The American Ecological Engineering Society bestows Fellow election to members with exemplary qualifications and sustained excellence in contributions to the practice, research, or education in the field of Ecological Engineering. Fellows are leaders in their discipline and accomplished members of our society, have dedicated substantial effort and resources towards the betterment of the discipline, and demonstrate evidence that they will make a positive contribution for the society in their role as a Fellow.
Dr. W. Cully Hession
Professor, Virginia Tech
AEES Founding Member
AEES President, 2009-2010
Class of 2024
Dr. Cully Hession is a founding member of AEES (1999) and has worked over 24 years to support and build the society. His service to the organization includes a term as President (2009-2010), Vice President (2008-2009), conference organizer (2002), conference co-organizer twice (2008, 2024), a member of the Certified Ecological Designer committee, and AEES journal task force member (2020-2022). He is a registered professional engineer in Virginia and certified ecological designer. Cully has significantly contributed to the profession by mentoring 35 ecological engineering graduate students (14 PhD and 21 MS), supporting more than 60 undergraduate researchers, serving as PI on a USDA-REEU and NSF-REU, and advancing our knowledge with more than 75 peer-reviewed papers.
Cully’s research focuses on “making streams happy.” He specifically explores the interaction between streams and floodplains, techniques for measuring and improving instream habitat, and the influence of humans on small streams. His research in the mid-Atlantic US clearly documented the scale-dependent effects of riparian vegetation on channel morphology and the implications for aquatic ecosystems and stream restoration practice. More recently, Cully’s work has focused on the use of drone-based lidar to quantify spatial and temporal variability in floodplain vegetation to improve the assessment, modeling, and management of lotic ecosystems.
Cully’s dedication to interdisciplinary research is evident in the success of the StREAM (Stream Research and Management) Lab, a unique outdoor laboratory downstream from the Virginia Tech campus. This laboratory serves as a field location for at least 20 classes and more than 20 graduate students have utilized the facility and long-term data for their research. Cully’s most recent research focuses on how beaver dams and beaver dam analogs (BDAs) could be a strategy for mitigating the effects of climate change on small stream systems.