Estella Leopold (B.Ph.'48, Botany), a groundbreaking paleoecologist who carries on her family's legacy of conservation, will be one of four recipients of honorary degrees at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in May.
Leopold has devoted the last seven decades to an academic career of extraordinary accomplishment alongside an active commitment to environmental conservation. A daughter of the legendary Aldo Leopold, she received her Ph.D. from Yale in 1955.
Trained in paleobotany, Leopold broadened her focus into the relationships among prehistoric life-forms. She helped lay the foundations for the new field of paleoecology, which reconstructs the structure and function of ancient ecosystems.
In keeping with her family's rich tradition of service to the community, Leopold has worked to preserve the landscapes and habitats of the American West and Southwest, most notably blocking the construction of dams in the Grand Canyon and establishing the Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument.
Leopold is an emeritus professor at the University of Washington, studying botany, forest resources and quaternary research. Throughout her career, she has also played a critical role in leading and expanding the Leopold Foundation.
"While election to the National Academy [of Sciences] is often the crowning achievement of a scientist's career, she took this in stride," writes Don Waller, John T. Curtis Professor and chair of the Department of Botany, "continuing to make important contributions in the 40 years since then, both in her specialty and in her broader efforts to conserve the ecosystems and landscapes she understands, and loves, so well."
The honorary degrees, as well as doctoral and some professional degrees, will be presented at the 5:30 p.m. commencement ceremony on Friday, May 15, at the Kohl Center.
Honorary degrees from UW-Madison recognize individuals with careers of extraordinary accomplishment. The Committee on Honorary Degrees looks to sustained and characteristic activity as its warrant: uncommonly meritorious activity exhibiting values that are esteemed by a great university.
Faculty legislation "give[s] preference in its nominations to persons who are connected in some significant way with the state or with the university," although a Wisconsin connection is not a prerequisite to an honorary degree.
To learn about all of the 2015 honorary degree recipients, read the full story by University Communications' Susannah Brooks.