William R. Elliott Receives National Award
On July 27, 2007, Dr. William R. Elliott ("Bill") received the Honorary
Membership Award from the National Speleological Society at their convention in
Marengo, Indiana. The certificate is "in recognition of his outstanding
contributions to speleology," signed by the NSS Board of Governors. NSS is the
world's leading cave exploration, science and conservation organization with
12,000 members.
The Honorary Membership has been awarded each year since 1941 to outstanding
scientists and conservationists, including foreign speleologists, and includes
life membership in the Society, although Dr. Elliott has been a member for 39
years. The last Missourian to receive the honor was in 1989.
Bill has been the cave biologist for the Missouri Department of Conservation,
Resource Science Division, in Jefferson City, since 1998. His duties include
research, conservation, management, education, and recreation in caves owned by
the Department, and cooperative work with private and public cave owners. He is
involved in karst land management issues and public policy.
Bill grew up in Georgetown, Texas, where he began caving at age 15. He joined
the NSS in 1968, and he soon was involved in cave exploration, mapping, bug
collecting, Mexican cavefish, bats and cave photography. He began finding new
species, and over the years ten new species, including a new genus, have been
named after him by scientists.
Bill's biology degrees include a bachelor's from the University of Texas at
Austin, and M.S. and Ph.D. from Texas Tech University. He studied cave life in
Mexico, Belize, and many states from Texas to Alaska. He has published numerous
scientific articles, and he has trained hundreds in cave ecology and
management. His specialties include cave protection, bat studies, millipede
taxonomy, biogeography and macrophotography. He has appeared in several videos
on caves.
Bill is a Fellow of the NSS and a board member of the Missouri Caves and Karst
Conservancy. He is the former Editor and Data Manager of the Texas
Speleological Survey (TSS). He is a past director of the TSS and the American
Cave Conservation Association. He received the TSS Outstanding Service Award in
2002. In 2006, he received a Special Achievements in GIS Award from ESRI, the
makers of ArcMap, for his papers on cave biogeography and conservation. He is
active in Bat Conservation International, Missouri Speleological Survey, and
the NSS Biology Section. He is Chair of the next National Cave & Karst
Management Symposium, to be held in St. Louis, October 8-12, 2007.
Bill has a web site with many photos of cave life and information. Just Google
"biospeleology" or go to
http://www.utexas.edu/tmm/sponsored_sites/biospeleology/
Bill and his wife, Gayle Unruh, like to travel, camp, hike, watch wildlife and
canoe. His family resides in Texas, California and Kansas. He is a licensed
Sport Pilot and President of the Experimental Aircraft Association's Chapter
#429 in Jefferson City.
In case you want to contact Bill:
William R. Elliott, Ph.D.
Missouri Department of Conservation
Resource Science Division
P.O. Box 180
Jefferson City, MO 65102-0180
573-522-4115 ext 3194 office
bill.elli...@mdc.mo.gov
7/30/07
