Odum School of Ecology faculty member Amy Rosemond was named a 2025 inductee into the Fellows of the Society for Freshwater Science, along with former faculty member Catherine Pringle, alumnus David M. Walters (MS ’97, PhD ’02), Joseph Culp and Eugénia Martí.
SFS Fellows are leaders in their disciplines who have dedicated substantial time and resources to benefit the field of freshwater science and the Society.
“The Fellows of the Society for Freshwater Science have demonstrated excellence over the course of careers in research, policy, or management of freshwater resources,” said SFS President Dave Arscott. “We are honored to recognize these 2025 SFS Fellows for their sustained leadership and significant contributions to advancing the field of freshwater science.”
The SFS Fellows officially welcomed the new class into their ranks at the Society’s 2025 Annual Meeting, held May 18-22 in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Eight students and six faculty affiliates of the River Basin Center presented at the meeting, which was themed Expanding Horizons: Freshwaters from Mountains to the Sea.
New SFS Fellow Amy Rosemond, UGA Foundation Professor in Ecology and Distinguished Research Professor, has collaborated on projects to make the field of freshwater science more inclusive and led research projects that advance our knowledge of freshwater ecosystems. She has championed the need for diverse perspectives, experiences and approaches in addressing environmental challenges in freshwater ecosystems. The success of her work is grounded in leveraging societal investments in agencies that work from local to national levels.
Rosemond was elected a Fellow of the Ecological Society of America in 2018 and received UGA’s Creative Research Medal in Science and Engineering that same year. She served as president of the Society for Freshwater Science from 2019-2020 and helped to create the Emerge Program, which she currently leads. Rosemond teaches freshwater and ecosystems courses and has served as major advisor to more than 20 graduate students and postdocs. With her collaborators and students, she has published more than 100 peer-reviewed publications on a broad range of topics that examine the effects and mechanisms of global change on freshwater ecosystems, including policy and management implications.
“Amy truly cares about advancing and supporting underrepresented scientists, and she has experience in successfully training and mentoring many early career scientists, many from marginalized backgrounds,” said one letter in support of her nomination. “She is walking the walk in this realm, and she is tirelessly advocating for social change within the academy to ensure that our scientific societies and institutions are led by a demographic representative of the diversity of our nation.”
Catherine Pringle is a Distinguished Research Professor Emeritus at the Odum School of Ecology (OSE), where she specialized in the study of freshwater ecosystems and conservation ecology. Her research focused on species-community-ecosystem linkages, effects of disturbance on freshwater ecosystems (particularly streams), and the role of hydrologic connectivity in shaping ecosystems within landscapes. She received a Ph.D. from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, followed by postdoctoral positions at the University of California at Berkeley, UC Santa Barbara and Cornell University. Pringle joined UGA in 1993 and served as the chair of OSE’s Conservation Ecology and Sustainable Development Graduate M.S. Program from 1993-2020. She served as past president of the Society for Freshwater Science and is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
During the SFS meeting, several members of the Pringle Lab held a two-part panel discussion—“Hydrologic connectivity and watershed conservation: a session in honor of Dr. Cathy Pringle”—to highlight the knowledge amassed during 30 years of working with Pringle, who supervised 24 doctoral and 22 master’s students over her career.
While Pringle and her former students have been important contributors to SFS for years, the location of the 2025 meeting also led alumni to want to honor Pringle and explore her legacy. The Pringle Lab conducted long-term research in Puerto Rico and influenced the growth of stream research there through lab alum Alonso Ramírez (MS ’97, PhD ’01), who went on to lead a stream ecology lab at the University of Puerto Rico and is now professor of applied ecology at NC State University.
Rebeca de Jesús Crespo (PhD ’15), a former Pringle Lab student who is now assistant professor in the Department of Environmental Sciences at Louisiana State University, called Pringle a trailblazer for women in science.
“Through her career, she was a champion for diversifying the field of ecology before it became a requirement on grant proposals. She genuinely understood the importance of expanding access to knowledge to local experts who would bring greater insights into tropical research,” she said. “I met many friends and colleagues through the Pringle lab, and if it were not for her, I would have never gotten into higher education. She is a great inspiration.”
David M. Walters (MS ’97, PhD ’02) is a Research Ecologist and Chief of the Ecology Branch at the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Columbia Environmental Research Center. His research focuses on the effects of human stressors on the form, function and structure of aquatic and riparian ecosystems with an emphasis on food web dynamics and contaminants. He began his career at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency National Exposure Research Laboratory in 2002 before joining the USGS in 2008. His publications have addressed the impacts of contaminants, land use and climate change, invasive species, and hydrologic alteration on aquatic and riparian organisms, and are geared toward furthering the conservation and restoration of these valued ecosystems.
