HARVARD GAZETTE ARCHIVES

Peter Shaw Ashton's most prominent work cited by the foundation in giving the award is his leadership since the 1980s in research projects aimed at conservation and the sustainable use of tropical forests. (Staff file photo Kris Snibbe/Harvard News Office)

Peter Shaw Ashton, the Charles Bullard Professor of Forestry Emeritus and former director of the Arnold Arboretum, has won the prestigious Japan Prize for his "significant contributions towards solving the conflict between human beings and the tropical forest ecosystem."

The annual award, by the Science and Technology Foundation of Japan, honors people from around the world whose original scientific and technological achievements have advanced knowledge and served the cause of human peace and prosperity.

The prize, announced Thursday (Jan. 11), will be presented during a ceremony in Tokyo on April 19. Ashton was one of three winners this year. Japan Prizes were also awarded to Albert Fert and Peter Grunberg for the discovery of giant magneto-resistance, an advance that led to rapid increases in the amount of memory held on computer hard discs. The prize includes an award of 50 million yen for each winner, or roughly $415,000.

Ashton's early career was marked by work on the taxonomy and biogeography of major tropical forest trees. He clarified a system of tropical forest classification and distribution still in use today.

Ashton's most prominent work cited by the foundation in giving the award is his leadership since the 1980s in research projects aimed at conservation and the sustainable use of tropical forests. Co-founder of the Center for Tropical Forest Science at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Ashton promoted a network of "Forest Dynamic Plots" to examine their biological diversity, biological productivity, and their role in stabilizing global climate.

The network has grown to large proportions, encompassing 18 plots holding 6,000 species and 3 million individual trees, which are subject to a census every five years.

"Dr. Ashton ... made an extraordinary effort to bring about the success of this project," the foundation wrote in its award statement. "He thereby brought us enormous biological and ecological knowledge indispensable for establishing the technology of the conservation and restoration of tropical forests."

Further studies conducted at the sites are expected to expand into the traditional uses of forests by local people, socio-economic analyses on sustainable forest use, and the effects of economic growth on forest ecosystems.

Ashton became the director of Harvard's Arnold Arboretum and Arnold Professor of Botany in 1978, posts he held until 1987. He was professor of dendrology at Harvard from 1978 to 1991, when he became Charles Bullard Professor of Forestry. He became Bullard Research Professor in 1999 and Bullard Professor Emeritus in 2004. He has been a faculty fellow at the Center for International Development since 1998.

Ashton, who received a doctorate from Cambridge University in 1962, received the Environmental Merit Award from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in 1987 and UNESCO's fourth Sultan Quaboos Prize for environmental preservation in 1997.