Science is never ending but it is important for current ecologists to have some understanding of the past as well as the present. To assess that I have undertaken to pick a time frame of 100 years and then tried to identify some of the most influential ecologists of the century. I do not think my list is comprehensive and there are other names that could be added from the many viewpoints among ecologists in the world today. One of the hazards of my attempt here is that I have very limited information on ecologists in China, Southeast Asia, Africa, and eastern Europe. Given these constraints here is a start of the list I think young and old ecologists should appreciate.
Charles Elton, one of the pioneers in population and community ecology
Alfred Lotka and Vito Volterra, originators of population modelling
William Ricker, fisheries sustainability and modelling
David Lack, population ecology of birds
Georgy F. Gause, competitive exclusion principle, community ecology
H.G. Andrewartha and L.C. Birch, the analysis of distribution and abundance
Eugene Odum, community and ecosystem ecology
Dennis Chitty, population ecology and regulation
Gene Likens, forest ecology and community dynamics
Joseph Connell, intertidal ecology
Robert MacArthur, mathematical ecology
Paul Ehrlich, human population problems
Robert May, theoretical ecology
C.S. Holling, insect outbreaks, resilience and ecosystem sustainability
Carl Walters, global management of fisheries
Tim Clutton-Brock, ecology of large mammals
Adam Watson, avian population dynamics
Anthony Sinclair, African community ecology
Ilka Hanski, metapopulation dynamics, island populations
David Tilman, long-term ecological research
William J. Bond, African plant ecology
Graeme Caughley, wildlife management, mammal census methods
Dan Simberloff, island community dynamics
Lev Ginzburg, mathematical ecology
Steve Carpenter, freshwater lake community dynamics, eutrophication
Nils Christian Stenseth, population and community dynamics
Robert Paine, intertidal ecology, food webs
David Schinder, ecosystem experimentation in aquatic systems
Hugh Tyndale Biscoe, physiological ecology and pest management
David Lindenmayer, forest management and fire ecology
William Bond, African savanna plant ecology
William Laurance, Amazon biodiversity and forest ecology
Hugh Possingham, decision theory for conservation
Zhibin Zhang, rodent ecology and conservation
Gilles Gauthier, arctic community ecology
This is at best a preliminary list, but if it serves a useful purpose, it should convince young ecologists that you cannot ignore literature published before 2000.
Crowcroft, P. 1991. Elton’s Ecologists: A History of the Bureau of Animal Population. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.
K. Dann and G. Mitman. 1997. Exploring the borders of environmental history and the history of ecology. Journal of the History of Biology 30 (2): 291-302.
Charley – what is notable about your list is that there is not a single woman on it.
What does this tell us? I found it hard to believe that there were no influential female ecologists in the last 100 years. So I ran a quick google search: ‘Who are the greatest female ecologists of the 20th and 21st centuries?’ Of course, a google search is only one way to come up with such a list, but let’s go with that for now. Here is what it served up:
-A 2019 blog highlighting important women in ecology: https://greatecology.com/2019/03/21/important-women-in-ecology/
-The Mighty Girl site, highlighting 16 women environmentalists, just this year (2025): https://www.amightygirl.com/blog?p=11863
-Wikipedia has a fairly impressive list of 20th century female scientists. Ecology as a discipline is not mentioned, but biology is: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_female_scientists_in_the_20th_century
-And an American site from 2020 celebrating women environmentalists on Earth Day: https://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/blog/5-american-women-environmentalists-to-celebrate-this-earth-day/
And so on. One could argue that not all of the above people are *ecologists*. Actually, what strikes me about the female ecologists listed is that they often become involved in other work: conservation activism, science policy, linking environmental and social justice, public health, chief scientist roles, journalism, etc. For some, ecology as a discipline appears to be a bridge to other means of going good things for people and planet. Those things are also ‘influential’, and in fact possibly even more impactful in the long term.
This is a gentle reminder to always check the lens through which we view ‘good’ or ‘influential’ people. I would hazard a guess that there are also no Indigenous ecologists on your list. This does not mean that there are none; simply that you or I might not know them. But it does remind us to champion other types of expertise and world views when compiling such lists. I completely agree with your point that emerging ecologists should seek to read, and cite, early work. But limiting ourselves to reading and citing one demographic serves no one in an era when the planet needs a diversity of expertise to address the growing list of environmental problems we face.
Perhaps compiling a list of the greatest ecological breakthroughs in the last 100 years would not only demonstrate how influential ecology is (or should be), but would also draw attention to the teams of people that achieved such influence?
I think the main question is whether all of these women were ecologists as opposed to environmentalists. So the problem is how wide to cast the net and I chose a narrow view of scientists that laid down the skeleton of ecological science that is essential to conservation as well a large component of environmentalism. And I appreciate that others can add to the list which is never complete. I think my interest in this broad question arose from the literature on the history of physics, chemistry, and medicine for which there are a plethora of good books. And this issue is partly reflected in the scientists that make it into the general news channels – largely missing are ecologists but at least the environmentalists are coming on more strongly of late. I hope that young ecologists look back in history if only to avoid repeating the mistakes of the past.
Hi Charley, I think you might want to reconsider your response to Andrea’s very valid point. Contending that these women weren’t really ecologists because they don’t fit into a model of ecology that was defined by men is simply perpetuating that exclusion. Producing an all-male list of the Great Names reinforces and sustains this bias for a new generation. If we want to avoid the mistakes of the past then a good start would be to produce inclusive lists, or else no lists at all.
Markus – I have left this blog open deliberately to get people thinking as to whom they think are ecological standouts. So this is a list for the last 100 years and I do not wish to imply that it will look similar in the next 100 years or that it is complete even now. There is no question that women have been discriminated against in science during the last many years. At the present time women are coming on strong in ecology, my students among them. So it is an open list for additions. One problem we all face is that the scientists that are the leaders in any field are not easily visible early in their career, so this constraint will always make it difficult if we want an answer for 2025. One option is to produce no list at all, but I think that an open list would be better, which is what I have tried to present.