Pioneer Tahoe Researcher Charles Goldman to Receive DRI's 2003 Nevada Medal

Dr. Charles Goldman, a University of California, Davis (UC Davis) scientist who has conducted a 43-year study of Lake Tahoe's water clarity, will receive the Desert Research Institute's 2003 Nevada Medal, DRI President Stephen G. Wells announced. Wells said Goldman's persistence in documenting the lake's environmental decline was a key factor leading to the dramatic increase in Tahoe Basin research during the past decade.

Goldman will formally accept the award in ceremonies at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas on March 11, and at the Reno Hilton on March 13. The eight-ounce, pure silver, minted medallion and $10,000 prize are provided by SBC (formerly SBC Nevada Bell). Goldman will also present the 2003 Nevada Medal Lectures at DRI's Las Vegas campus on March 11, and then at DRI's Reno campus on March 12.

"Professor Goldman, through his Tahoe Research Group, was unrelenting in his efforts to attract the focus of the American scientific community and the federal government to the threat to the lake's future," Wells said. "Charles is best known in the West for his Tahoe achievements, but his scientific accomplishments beyond this area have established an international reputation in limnology, the study of fresh water ecologies."

Goldman's fields of interest include global studies of freshwater lakes with emphasis on biological, chemical, and physical interactions between the surrounding watersheds and lakes. This work has included limnological studies in Africa, Europe, and Central and South America, and eight research expeditions to Lake Baikal in Siberian Russia. Particular emphasis has been on eutrophication of lakes, nutrient limiting factors, the impact of climate and weather, and the use and importance of long-term data sets in environmental research and management.

After receiving his Ph.D. in Limnology and Fisheries from the University of Michigan in 1958, Goldman served as President of the American Society of Limnology and Oceanography in 1967-68, was awarded the Antarctic Service Medal by Congress in 1968, and was elected a Fellow by the California Academy of Sciences in 1969.

Goldman served as Chair of the Division of Environmental Studies at UC Davis from 1988-1992, and was founding Director of the Institute of Ecology, serving from 1966-1969 and again in 1990-92. He has supervised over 90 graduate students and 32 postdoctoral students during his 43 years at UC Davis. Goldman's awards include an NSF Senior Postdoctoral Fellowship in 1964 for limnological research in the Arctic (Lapland), a Guggenheim Fellowship in northern Italy in 1965, and the Albert Einstein World Award of Science in 1998. The Einstein Award, bestowed annually to a single individual by a council of eminent scientists, recognizes those who have accomplished scientific and technological achievements that have advanced scientific understanding and benefited humanity.