Longtime Knox College faculty member Stuart Allison, professor of biology and director of the Green Oaks Biological Field Station, has been named to the Watson Bartlett Professorship of Biology and Conservation.

The endowed professorship recognizes Allison's distinguished teaching, scholarship, and service to the College, said President Teresa Amott, who made the appointment upon the recommendation of Knox's Faculty Personnel Committee and the Dean of the College.

A member of the Knox faculty since 1997, Allison earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Puget Sound, a master's degree from the Graduate School of Oceanography at the University of Rhode Island, and a Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley. He specializes in field botany, ecological restoration, conservation, and ethnobotany.

In 2010, Allison was awarded a Fulbright Scholar Fellowship to study ecological restoration in England.

Allison said he feels honored and humbled to have been awarded the Watson Bartlett Professorship. He also is pleased to be following in the footsteps of recently retired Professor Linda Dybas '64 as holder of the endowed professorship.

"She was my mentor when I was first hired at Knox and I would not have been able to do the work that led to this professorship without her support and guidance," he said. "There are so many people who have helped me throughout my career—mentors when I was a student, mentors and colleagues here at Knox, students who have inspired me—that I can't name them all as I fear I will miss someone. But following Linda makes this position especially meaningful."

In addition to national and international presentations, Allison's publications include Ecological Restoration and Environmental Change: Renewing Damaged Ecosystems and articles in Invasive and Introduced Plants and Animals: Human Perceptions, Attitudes, and Approaches to Management; Ecological Restoration; and Restoration Ecology.

His professional service includes serving as a member of the Board of Directors of the Society for Ecological Restoration, as coordinating editor for Restoration Ecology, and as a panelist for the National Science Foundation Biology Directorate Minority Postdoctoral Fellowship Program.

On the Knox campus, he serves as chair pro tem of the faculty and curator of the Herbarium, and he has served in key faculty roles, including chair of the Department of Biology, member of the Executive Committee, and advisor to student organizations.

Allison also directs the College's Green Oaks Biological Field Station, a research and recreation area in eastern Knox County that consists of 700 acres of forest, grassland, and aquatic habitat. It is the second tallgrass prairie restoration site in the nation.

The Watson Bartlett Professorship in Biology and Conservation was established in 1990 by the Knox College Board of Trustees, utilizing an estate gift of Watson Bartlett, who attended Knox for a year after graduating in 1916 from Mendota High School. After leaving the College in 1917, Bartlett returned home to assist his father, an attorney.

Bartlett lived in the Mendota area and became president of the National Bank of Triumph in 1942. Throughout his life, he followed a wide range of intellectual pursuits and was renowned for his self-sufficiency. In honor of his accomplishments, he was presented an honorary degree by Illinois Valley Community College.