Thomas R. Fox of Christiansburg, Va., professor of forest soils and silviculture in the College of Natural Resources and Environment, received the Society of American Foresters' Barrington Moore Award in Biological Science, which recognizes outstanding achievement in biological research leading to the advancement of forestry.

The award is named in honor of Barrington Moore, a prominent member of the first generation of professional foresters in the United States, who joined the society in 1911. Moore served on several committees, including Committee on Forest Policy, which prepared the first truly comprehensive statement of forest policy ever attempted by the society.

Fellow Virginia Tech faculty member Harold E. Burkhart, University Distinguished Professor and the Thomas M. Brooks Professor of Forestry, received this prestigious award in 1991.

“I am honored to have been selected to receive the Barrington Moore Award from the Society of American Foresters,” Fox said. “This really is recognition of the efforts of the many excellent graduate students and post doctoral associates I have had the privilege of working with throughout my career.”

“I am very grateful for support from the College of Natural Resources and Environment that has enabled my students and me to pursue our research focused on increasing the productivity and sustainability of plantation forests in the Americas,” he continued.

Fox’s research focuses on silviculture, forest soils and fertilization, tree nutrition, and the environmental sustainability of intensive forest management. His research and leadership efforts led to the development of precision-based silviculture prescriptions widely used across the approximately 32 million acres of pine plantations in the southeastern United States. Much of his work concentrates on meeting the needs of the forest industry in the United States and Latin America.

He is the lead principal investigator for the Department of Forest Resources and Environmental Conservation’s $3.4 million portion of a $20 million grant from the National Institute of Food and Agriculture to study the effects of climate change on southern pine forests. In addition, he serves as the overall lead principal investigator for silvicultural research on the grant as well as the Integration Team Leader for mitigation. In this role, he helps coordinate and synthesize the work of more than 29 scientists working on the project.

Fox co-directs the Forest Productivity Cooperative, a research partnership among Virginia Tech, North Carolina State University, and dozens of forest industry firms in the United States and South America. The cooperative integrates research, education, and technology transfer to provide solutions to enhance and sustain plantation forestry throughout the Americas.

He is also the Virginia Tech site director for the Center for Advanced Forestry Systems, a National Science Foundation Industry/University Cooperative Research Center that bridges top forestry research programs with industry members to solve complex, industry-wide problems.

Fox received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Maine, his master’s degree from Virginia Tech, and his doctorate from the University of Florida. He is a Fellow in both the Society of American Foresters and the Soil Science Society of America.

Written by LauraBess Kenny of Richmond, Va., a senior majoring in communication in the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences.

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