Ivette Perfecto was recently named the George Willis Pack Professor by the U-M regents. During her 20-year career at SNRE, she has maintained a vibrant research program; graduated 11 Ph.D. students; served as thesis adviser to more than 30 master's students; and advised three master's projects. Professor Perfecto earned her doctoral degree from SNRE in 1989. In December 2009, she was elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. In 2007-08, she received the Outstanding Faculty Teaching Award voted on by SNRE students. She also has received two Fulbright awards to conduct research in Nicaragua and Brazil. She will use the resources of the professorship to further study the interactions of the insect networks that comprise part of the general ecological web of tropical coffee agroforestry systems. The five-year renewable professorship is named after George Pack, a conservationist, U-M regent and an early citizen of the state. The purpose of the chair is the "promotion of practical forest land management in the broadest sense of the term." Professor Perfecto's lecture is titled: Complex ecological networks and autonomous ecosystem services: an example from the coffee agroecosystem.

Don Zak was recently named the Burton V. Barnes Collegiate Professor by the U-M regents. His research has examined connections between the composition and function of soil microbial communities and the importance of microbial activity in regulating ecosystem-level processes. He recently received the Francis Clark Distinguished Lectureship honor, the highest award presented by the Soil Science Society of America for research in soil biology and biochemistry. He also received the 2006-07 Outstanding Faculty Teaching Award voted on by SNRE students. He has served on the editorial boards of Ecology, Ecological Monographs and Soil Science Society of America Journal, and is the principal investigator on National Science Foundation and U.S. Department of Energy grants. He holds a dual appointment with the U-M Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. The five-year renewable professorship is named after Burt Barnes, an SNRE alumnus, emeritus professor and world-renowned forest ecologist who worked to understand the biology and ecology of forests. Professor Zak's lecture is titled: Microbial Responses to a Changing Climate: Implications for the Future Functioning of Terrestrial Ecosystems.