[Bristol-Birds] DR. ANDY JONES HONORED WITH "ELECTIVE MEMBER" STATUS BY AOU

From: "Wallace Coffey" <jwcoffey@xxxxxxxxxx>
To: "Bristol-birds" <bristol-birds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Tue, 18 Aug 2009 17:00:20 -0400









Dr. Andy Jones,  shown at the far left in the above photo,
was elected Thursday to the significant honor as 
an Elective Member of the American Ornithologists' Union
at the society's 127th Stated Meeting in Philadelphia.

He is among 14 prominent American ornithologists elected
in the Class of 2009.  The selection was made by the AOU
Committee on Nominations of Fellows and Elective Members.

The election is for significant contributions to ornithology 
and/or service to the AOU. Elective Members at the time 
of their election come from the society's 3,500 members
who must be residents or citizens of the Western Hemisphere.

 After finishing his Ph.D. at the famous Bell Museum of Natural 
History, Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior of 
the University of Minnesota, Dr. Jones raised eyebrows among
ornithologists in this hemisphere.  His molecular research 
publication of tern phylogeny, has gained widespread recognition. 
His proposal for a new genus of terns was accepted by the
South American Checklist Committee.

He becomes one of just three teenagers who began to study
birds in our region and who have been elected to honors by AOU.
He was elected at the youngest age of the three.

Our most recent Elective Member before Jones was 
Dr. Charles R. Smith of Cornell University who was elected 
in the Class of 1994.  Dr. Smith is a graduate of ETSU and
earned his Ph.D. at Cornell.  He was a member of the staff
of the famous Laboratory of Ornithology and the first ever
technical editor of the lab's "Living Bird" magazine. Since 1992, 
he has coordinated the New York State Gap Analysist Project.

Dr. Stephen M. Russell, of the University of Arizona, was 
elected to the honor in the Class of 1965.  Eleven years later,  
Russell was elected to the most prominent membership as a
Fellow of AOU in the Class of 1976.  He is among authors
who have written the 65 AOU monographs, having written the
first, "A distributional study of the birds of British Honduras," 
in 1964. Dr. Russell served as Secretary of AOU for many 
years.  The Bristol Bird Club is named in his honor.

The three are believed to be the only such persons from our
region to be so honored. 

Dr. Henry M. Stephenson, who taught biology at Emory & Henry
College in the mid-1940's, was honored as an Elective Member in
the Class 1954 when he was prominent as an ornithologist at Florida 
State University.  He was the senior ornithologist of that state when
he died in 1992 and the University Presses of Florida published his
book, The Birdlife of Florida, in 1994.  

Dr. James T. Tanner, who taught biology at ETSU starting in
1940, and the famous authority and author on the Ivory-billed 
Woodpecker, was honored as an Elective Member in the Class 
of 1947.  He taught most of his career at the University of 
Tennessee.

Dr. Jones is the William A. and Nancy R. Klamm Endowed 
Chair of Ornithology and Curator and Head of Ornithology
at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History.

He is a 1995 graduate of Kingsport Dobyns-Bennett High 
School.

Let's go birding . . . .

Wallace Coffey
Bristol, TN
[Bristol-Birds] DR. ANDY JONES HONORED WITH "ELECTIVE MEMBER" STATUS BY AOU

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