William Louis Stern, Department of Biological Sciences, Florida International University

Professor Stern has studied plant anatomy since the 1950s and for much of his career, has taught in several areas of botany, particularly plant anatomy, economic botany, botanical history, forensic botany, and plant microtechnique. He served as botany chairman at the University of Florida and retired from the post in 2002 to return to full time research and consultancy. He served two terms as President of the Botanical Society of America, for which he was honored with the Certificate of Merit and the Centennial Award, and was also President of the American Society of Plant Taxonomists, and of the Washington, D.C. Botanical Society. Professor Stern was editor of Tropical Woods and founding editor of the journal Biotropica. He also edited Memoirs of the Torrey Botanical Club and Plant Science Bulletin. He is an elected fellow of the Linnean Society of London.

Alec Pridgeon