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The Nature Conservancy of Texas honors biology professor Frank Judd with special award

South Texas scientist is recognized for contributions to natural history and science education

SOUTH PADRE ISLAND — Frank W. Judd, Ph.D., a retired biology professor at the University of Texas Pan American, was honored Friday by The Nature Conservancy of Texas with a special award for his contributions to natural history, his dedication to education, and his work to support wildlife conservation. The award was presented during a meeting of the organization’s state board of trustees in South Padre Island.

Judd attended the meeting to provide Nature Conservancy trustees with an overview of Padre Island ecology. He was presented the surprise award to recognize “his contributions to the field of natural history and ecology, his dedication to the education of students in the field of natural history, and his tireless efforts to support conservation of plants, animals and communities,” said Jim Bergan, Ph.D., the Conservancy’s Texas director of science and stewardship.

“Anyone who enjoys and appreciates the natural heritage of South Texas – the beauty of the dunes on South Padre Island or the resacas in the Rio Grande Valley that are so important to wildlife – owes a debt of gratitude to Frank,” Bergan said. “He has done so much to help us understand how special these places really are, and his efforts have been multiplied by the work of his students, who have gone on to careers in natural-resource management.”

Judd currently is a research professor at UT-Pan American, and no longer teaches courses since his retirement in 2003. He was chairman of the university’s department of biology from 1996 through 1999, and was director of the Coastal Studies Laboratory from 1984 to 1994. He has been a professor at UT-Pan American since 1982, and previously served as an associate professor, assistant professor and instructor at the university. Courses he taught in the biology department included evolution, ecology, marine ecology, ecological physiology, field zoology, mammalian physiology, mammalogy, herpetology, and anatomy and physiology in vertebrate zoology.

He received his doctoral and master’s degrees in zoology from Texas Tech University and earned a bachelor of science degree in biology from Midwestern State University in Wichita Falls.

He serves on the board of governors of the Southwestern Association of Naturalists and is former president of the Southwestern Association of Naturalists and chairman of the biological sciences section of the Texas Academy of Sciences. He also was formerly the editor of the Texas Journal of Science. Judd received the Texas Academy of Science Distinguished Scientist Award in 2005 and the Valley Nature Center’s Outstanding Naturalist Award in 2003.

The author of numerous articles in both scholarly and popular publications, Judd co-edited, with John W. Tunnell Jr., the compendium “The Laguna Madre of Texas and Tamaulipas,” published in 2002 by Texas A&M University Press and funded by The Nature Conservancy.  For several years, he wrote weekly columns on animals and plants for the Port Isabel-South Padre Island Press and the Mercedes Enterprise, and has written articles for Texas Parks & Wildlife magazine.

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Frank Judd
Photo Credit: © UT-Pan American 

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The Nature Conservancy is an international, nonprofit organization that preserves plants, animals and natural communities that represent the diversity of life on Earth by protecting the lands and waters they need to survive. To date, the Conservancy and its nearly 1 million members have been responsible for the protection of more than 15 million acres in the United States and have helped protect more than 102 million acres in Latin America, the Caribbean, Asia and the Pacific. In the Lone Star State, The Nature Conservancy of Texas owns 35 nature preserves and conservation projects and assists private landowners to conserve their land through more than 70 voluntary land-preservation agreements. The Nature Conservancy of Texas protects 250,000 acres of wild lands and, with partners, has conserved close to a million acres for wildlife habitat across the state. Visit The Nature Conservancy of Texas on the Web at nature.org/texas.