Jiquan Chen will receive a Scientific Achievement Award from the International Union of Forest Research Organizations, or IUFRO. Through various awards, IUFRO honors those who advance science and promote international cooperation in all fields of research related to forestry. The Scientific Achievement Award is the highest honor bestowed by IUFRO every five years and is presented for research results published in scientific journals, proceedings of scientific meetings or books, or appropriate patents or other relevant evidence that demonstrates the importance of the scientific or technical achievement to the advancement of regional or world forestry or forest research. 

Chen is a professor of Geography in the MSU Department of Geography, Environment and Spatial Sciences and the Center for Global Change and Earth Observations. He obtained his Ph.D. in Ecosystem Analysis at the University of Washington, Seattle. Chen was awarded the William J. Beal Outstanding Faculty Award by MSU in 2020 and served as a Fulbright Global Scholar during 2021-2022.   

Chen is a distinguished scholar in landscape ecology and ecosystem science, focusing on forested landscapes. He has made significant contributions to international scholarship through his groundbreaking research on edge effects in fragmented landscapes, biosphere-atmosphere exchanges in carbon and water in terrestrial ecosystems, and the dynamics of social-environmental systems, or SES.  

He is one of the few scholars who has attempted to quantitatively integrate SES functions at multiple spatial and temporal scales. His research on the interdependent dynamics of SES across Eurasian drylands has been particularly influential, as it has teased apart the influences of land use and policy shifts from a global climatic change perspective. This has made science more society-relevant and has opened new avenues for research.  

Chen's extensive research has also resulted in broad and lasting impacts on global collaborations, open access of data, and knowledge sharing. This has expanded his research and academic education and resulted in regular workshops and joint publications through his 15 years as (co)chair of the Landscape Ecology Working Party of IUFRO (1994-2012). 

The Scientific Achievement Award will be presented to Dr. Chen at the XXVI IUFRO World Congress taking place in Stockholm, Sweden, from June 23-29, 2024. Other distinguished recipients include world-renowned forest researchers Eckehard Brockerhoff, Carol Jean Pierce Colfer, Shannon Hagerman, Henrik Hartmann, Cindy Prescott, John Sessions, Ge Sun, Chung-Jui Tsai, and Brenda Wingfield.  

For more information about the Scientific Achievement Award, click here. To visit Chen’s lab website, click here.  

This story originally appeared on the College of Social Science website.