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. William Mitsch
Professor Emeritus, Florida Gulf Coast University
AEES President, 2002-2003
Class of 2023
Dr. William J. Mitsch was Eminent Scholar and Director, Everglades Wetland Research Park, The Water School, and Juliet C. Sproul Chair for Southwest Florida Habitat Restoration at Florida Gulf Coast University, until his retirement in 2022. Before moving to Florida in 2012, he was at The Ohio State University for 27 years including 20 years as Director of the Olentangy River Wetland Research Park that he founded and 15 years as Distinguished Professor in the School of Environment and Natural Resources. He remains Professor Emeritus in the School of Environment and Natural Resources at OSU.
Prior to these positions at FGCU and OSU, he held professorships at Illinois Institute of Technology and University of Louisville. Dr. Mitsch holds a B.S. in mechanical/industrial engineering from University of Notre Dame and an M.E. and Ph.D. in environmental engineering science and systems ecology at University of Florida.
Dr. Mitsch’s research and teaching have focused on wetland and river ecology and biogeochemistry, wetlands and climate change, wetland creation and restoration, ecological engineering and ecosystem restoration, solving harmful algal blooms with nature-based solutions, and ecosystem modeling. Dr. Mitsch has authored or co-authored close to 800 research papers, abstracts, and other publications including 25 books. This includes the popular textbook Wetlands that is now in its 6th edition and was recently translated to Chinese. He founded and was editor-in-chief for 25 years of the international journal Ecological Engineering.
Dr. Mitsch has completed 85 graduate students through thesis or dissertation at 5 institutions in his 47 years as a professor. He is just now completing "Memoirs of an Environmental Science Professor" (CRC Press, 2024) that describes in 9 chapters what he fought for inhis career that was meaningful for environmental education and ecosystem protection.
A few of Dr. Mitsch’s awards include an Einstein Professorship from the Chinese Academy of Sciences (2010), a Doctorate honoris causa from University of Tartu, Estonia (2010), Ramsar Convention Award for Merit, (2015) and four Fulbright Fellowships: University of Copenhagen, Denmark (1986); University of Botswana, Maun Botswana (2007); Bialystok University of Technology, Bialystok, Poland (2016); Bangor University, Bangor, Wales, UK (2019) , and the 2004 Stockholm Water Prize Laureate for lifetime achievements in lake/wetland ecology (2004).