Stephen P. Hubbell, a Distinguished Research Professor of Plant Biology at the University of Georgia, has been named winner of the Marsh Award—the top honor given each year by the British Ecological Society (BES).

The Marsh Award is sponsored by the Marsh Christian Trust and is given for the discovery or conceptual advance that has had the greatest recent impact in ecology. The BES is awarding the honor to Hubbell for his unified neutral theory.

“The best awards are the kinds you have no idea of getting. I feel very honored and honestly amazed,” said Hubbell, who last year was named a fellow of the prestigious American Academy of Arts and Sciences. “This was completely unexpected.” The Marsh Award for ecology recognizes exceptional achievements and contributions. The award is an honorarium of £1,000 plus a certificate. It is open to scientists from anywhere in the world.

The neutral theory in ecology predicts patterns of biodiversity over geographical spatial scales and evolutionary timescales, including the number of species and their commonness and rarity. In addition to his appointment at UGA, Hubbell is a senior staff scientist at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute. He is an internationally known ecologist whose research is on tropical rainforests and in theoretical ecology. He has published three books and more than 120 scientific papers in tropical plant ecology, plant-animal interactions, and theoretical ecology. He is founder and chairman of the board of the National Council for Science and the Environment (NCSE), a national organization with more than 10,000 members and the participation of more than 200 universities and professional societies. The mission of the NCSE is improving the science underlying environmental decision-making. Hubbell is also co-founder and board member of the Center for Tropical Forest Science, which manages a global network of permanent tropical forest research plots.

He is a Fellow in the American Association for the Advancement of Science, as well as a Guggenheim Fellow, a Pew Scholar, and a nominee for the Craaford Prize—the equivalent of the Nobel Prize, which is not awarded in ecology.