Established in 1996, the Parker/Gentry Award honors an outstanding individual, team or organization in the field of conservation biology whose efforts have had a significant impact on preserving the world's natural heritage and whose actions and approach can serve as a model to others. The Award is designed to highlight work that could benefit from wider publicity and fuller dissemination of scientific results.
The Parker/Gentry Award is presented annually by The Field Museum of Natural History.
The Award bears the names of the late Theodore A. Parker III and Alwyn Howard Gentry, outstanding conservation biologists, who worked closely with several Field Museum curators, especially through the Rapid Assessment Program (RAP) launched by Conservation International.
Parker, an ornithologist, and Gentry, a botanist, were killed August 3, 1993 when their light plane crashed into a mountainside as they were making a treetop survey of an Ecuadorian cloud forest.
Award Winners
1996 Fernando Rubio, Pronaturaleza, Peru
1997 Christopher Gordon, Volta Basin Research Project, Ghana
1998 Randall Borman, Central Cofan Zabalo, Ecuador
1999 Juan Mayr Maldonado, Fundacion Pro Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, Colombia
2000 Louise Emmons, United States
2001 Michael Lannoo, United States
2002 Los Amigos Team, Cordillera Azul National Park Peru
2003 Lorivi Ole Moirana, Tanzania
2004 Yang Yuming, Yunnan Province, China
2005 Gary Stiles, Colombia
2006 Jose "Pepe" Alvarez A., Peru
2007 Judith Kimerling, United States
2008 Tim Davenport, Tanzania
2009 Daniel Rakotondravony, Madagascar
2010 Therese and John Hart, Réserve de Faune á Okapis, D.R. Congo
2011 Lester Kaufman, United States
2012 Nina R. Ingle, Philippines
2013, John Kress, United States
2014, Rhett Butler, United States