Dr. Bill Bowerman honored with the Lowell Thomas Award
Bill Bowerman honored with the Lowell Thomas Award Bill Bowerman (center) received the Lowell Thomas Award medal and certificate from Explorer's Club President Richard Garriott (L) and Vice President for Flags and Honors Martin Nweeia in Oslo, Norway.
Image Credit: John Bowerman
AGNR’s Bill Bowerman joined an elite group of innovators and adventurers on October 14 when The Explorer’s Club honored him with the Lowell Thomas Award. Previous recipients include such luminaries as Carl Sagan, Buzz Aldrin, Sylvia Earle, Sir Edmund Hillary, E.O. Wilson, and Louise Leakey, among others. This year’s award was given under the theme innovation, and Bowerman was recognized for his ground-breaking approach and relentless dedication to preserving eagle populations around the world and for his contribution to understanding the impacts of human activity on complex ecological systems.
A professor in the Department of Environmental Science and Technology, Bowerman has been instrumental in protecting bald eagles from the effects of environmental pollutants and other stressors in the U.S. He began studying bald eagle ecology and the effects of environmental pollutants in the Great Lakes region in 1984, and has since become a world-renowned champion of raptor conservation through environmental monitoring programs on every continent except Antarctica.
“I’m just so shocked and honored to have won this award,” Bowerman said. “I was just a kid from Munising, Michigan, and I remember being inspired by great explorers like Jacques Cousteau, Thor Heyerdahl, and people on National Geographic. So, to be given this award alongside such amazing people is just surreal.”
The award is given to individuals who have “created or invented specific methods, tools, and techniques that allow us to explore in a responsible and sustainable manner,” according to The Explorers Club website. Recipient’s work “extends beyond their field and focus to meaningfully contribute to knowledge of the world. . . and has impacted and improved our ability to explore and carry out science in the field.”
