Ward, James V

Biography

James V. Ward was appointed Full Professor in the Department of Environmental Sciences at the ETH Zurich in 1995. He held the Chair in Aquatic Ecology at the ETH and was head of the Limnology Division at the EAWAG (Swiss Federal Institute for Environmental Science and Technology). He retired in October 2002. James Ward, born in March 1940, studied at the Universities of Minnesota (bachelors degree), Denver (masters degree) and Colorado (Ph.D. degree). He was a professor at Colorado State University before joining the ETH. In 1983 he spent a sabbatical leave at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. His primary research interests are running water ecology and the ecology of alluvial groundwater aquifers. He strives for a comprehensive understanding of running waters as multidimensional ecosystems. Prof. Ward was especially interested in what role environmental gradients (ecotones) play across diverse scales, and how these gradients influence distribution patterns (e.g. biodiversity) and processes (e.g. connectivity) along floodplain rivers. This was also one of the goals of extensive research projects being conducted on a glacial flood plain in the Val Roseg, Engadin, and in the catchment of the Fiume Tagliamento, Italy. James Ward is a former president of the North American Benthological Society. He is a member of advisory boards of the Max Planck Institute (limnology), the Austrian Academy of Sciences (limnology) and the Long-term Research Program on the Mississippi River. From 1987-1995 he was editor of the international journal "Regulated Rivers".

Research Interest

Running water ecology and the ecology of alluvial groundwater aquifers.