Brian Fath is awarded the Prigogine Medal for work on ecological systems

Ilya Prigogine

Ilya Prigogine was born in Moscow in 1917, and obtained his undergraduate and graduate education in chemistry at the Free University in Brussels. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for his contribution to non-equilibrium thermodynamics, particularly the theory of dissipative structures. The main theme of his scientific work was the role of time in the physical sciences and biology. He contributed significantly to the understanding of irreversible processes, particularly in systems far from equilibrium. The results of his work have had profound consequences for understanding biological and ecological systems.

Brian Fath

Brian Fath is Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at Towson University (Maryland, USA) and Research Scholar within the Advanced Systems Analysis Program at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (Laxenburg, Austria). His research is in the area of systems ecology and network analysis applied to the sustainability and resilience of socio-ecological systems. His interests range from network analysis to ecosystem theory to urban metabolism to systems thinking and environmental philosophy. Dr. Fath has taught courses on ecological networks and modeling in Austria, China, Croatia, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Russia, and South Africa. He holds visiting faculty appointments at the School of Environment, Beijing Normal University and at the State Key Laboratory of Urban and Regional Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences both in Beijing, China. He was also Fulbright Distinguished Chair at Parthenope University of Naples, Italy. He has published over 150 research papers, reports, and book chapters. He co-authored three books, including Flourishing within the limits to growth in 2015; He is Editor-in-Chief for the journal Ecological Modelling; Editor-in-Chief for 2nd edition of Encyclopedia of Ecology; President of the North American Chapter of International Society for Ecological Modelling and, among other appointments, he is a member and past Chair of Baltimore County Commission on Environmental Quality.