2018 - Dr. Gary Nabhan

Over the past 30 years, Dr. Nabhan has made major contributions to economic and ethnobotany and embodies the spirit of the Distinguished Economic Botanist.

Gary Paul Nabhan is an internationally-celebrated nature writer, agrarian activist and ethnobiologist who tangibly works on conserving the links between biodiversity and cultural diversity. For such work, Nabhan has been honored as a pioneer and creative force in the “local food movement” and seed saving community by Utne Reader, Mother Earth News, New York Times, Bioneers, and Time magazine.  He has been involved in bringing together farmers, ranchers, urban food activists and indigenous communities for the collaborative conservation of food-producing landscapes during the last quarter century.

As the W.K. Kellogg Endowed Chair in Sustainable Food Systems at the University of Arizona Southwest Center, he serves as founding Director of the Center for Regional Food Systems. Nabhan is currently-engaged in a National Science Foundation grant involving five universities and colleges in integrating Western science with Native American traditional ecological knowledge in indigenous and American Indian studies programs.