New Hampshire Forester Recognized by National Organization

Harry T. Valentine of Madbury, New Hampshire, a research forester with the USDA Forest Service's Northeastern Research Station in Durham, will receive the Society of American Foresters’ Award in Forest Science. The award recognizes distinguished individual research in any branch of the quantitative, managerial, or social sciences leading to the advancement of forestry.

A research forester with the USDA Forest Service for the past 30 years, Valentine is credited with making significant contributions to the forestry in a variety of subject areas, including insect modeling, forest inventory, forest growth modeling, and importance sampling.

“Dr. Valentine has made significant contributions in several disparate venues,” says Ann Camp, chair of the SAF Science and Technology Board, the body that reviews nominations for the Award in Forest Science. “Although best known for his innovative and cutting edge research in the fields of forest sampling and process modeling, Dr. Valentine has also contributed substantially to knowledge about the population dynamics and herbivory of an important exotic forest insect--the gypsy moth.”

Valentine has published more than 80 scientific papers, and his discoveries have been reported in journals of botany, ecology, entomology, forestry, pathology, statistics, and tree physiology, as well as in the chapters of several books. He may be best known for adapting a Japanese theory of tree form—the pipe model theory—to the forestry community and for his work in importance sampling, an efficient methodology for the unbiased estimation of biomass, volume, and elemental constituents of individual trees. An SAF member since 1977, Valentine holds a bachelor’s degree from Rutgers University and masters and PhD degrees from Yale University.

The Technology Transfer Award is one of eight national awards announced by SAF. The winners will be recognized at a special ceremony held during a joint meeting being between SAF and the Canadian Institute of Forestry/Institut forestier du Canada. The meeting will be held October 2-6 in Edmonton, Alberta.

The award winners are nominated and approved by their professional peers. SAF’s Forest Science and Technology Board or the Committee on Professional Recognition review the nominations then forward their recommendations to the SAF Council, the organization’s governing body, for its review and approval. The rigorous review process produces candidates with a national profile and a comprehensive history of sustained contributions to the forestry profession and service to the public.

For information about the national awards, visit the SAF website at http://www.safnet.org/who/nationalawards.cfm.

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