Dr. Glenn Juday Honored with Certificate of Distinction

Glenn Juday, a 1972 forest management alumnus, has been named as a 2023 recipient of the College of Agriculture’s Certificate of Distinction.

The Certificate of Distinction is the highest award of the Purdue Agricultural Alumni Association. It is intended to recognize those who have contributed significantly to agriculture, forestry or natural resources through professional accomplishments, activity in professional organizations, community service work, and other activities that make the nominees a credit to their profession

Juday, who was tabbed as Purdue Forestry and Natural Resources’ 2022 Lifetime Achievement Award winner, contributed to the fields of forest ecology, conservation and ecological policy issues during his more than 45 year career.

"I grew up in the area close to Purdue, and all my early memories of people, family, institutions, and nature are bound up in that place,” Juday said. “Purdue was a constant presence – some of my teachers trained or graduated from there, farmers learned about practices that could keep them competitive, astronauts were educated there, lectures and library collections were available there, my wife and I were married there. That perspective always stayed with me – and I hope it has not been lost – that education, research, and outreach can engage with and serve a practical, hardworking, dreaming society as long as it remains committed to the pursuit of truth grounded in the great cultural achievements of the past. These ideals will always be challenged by pressures for conformity, censorship, avarice, nihilism, and social manipulation rather than empowerment. For a man who has lived a life relating to nature as I have, it is the highest honor to receive an award from alumni who aspire to those original ideals that launched Purdue, and which will be the seeds for its best moments to come."

After completing his forest management degree in 1972, Juday contributed to the plan for an Indiana Natural and Scenic Rivers system. He went on to earn his PhD in plant ecology from Oregon State University, studying the location, composition and structure of old-growth forests of the Oregon Coast Range, and complete a post-doctoral fellowship in environmental affairs. While at OSU, he became the executive chair of the Oregon Natural Area Preserve Advisory Committee, working toward the creation of legally established natural areas in the state, a goal which came to fruition in 1978.

Juday then hired on as a research scientist for the USDA Forest Service at the Institute of Northern Forestry in Fairbanks, Alaska, while also working as the Alaska Ecological Reserves Coordinator. In 1982, he helped organized one of the first scientific symposia assessing potential climate change effects in the far north.

In 1987, Juday transitioned to a teaching and research role as a professor of forest ecology at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, a position he served in for 30 years. His research included forest management, climate change, forest development and regeneration following fire and forest harvest, tree ring studies, and biodiversity and wilderness management.

Juday has briefed or advised four presidents or presidential candidates and many other political figures on biodiversity and climate change, shared his expertise in media products worldwide and earned the 2021 George B. Fell Award for accomplishments in the natural areas profession. He was a contributor to the U.S. national climate change assessment, and the international arctic climate impact assessment. Juday also serves on the Advisory Board for the Center for Legislative Energy and Environmental Research.

FNR Affiliated Individuals to Receive the Certificate of Distinction

2023 – Glenn Juday (B.S. Forest Management)
2022 - Stephen Creech (B.S. Forestry and Natural resources 1974)
2021 - David Hyink (PhD Forest Biometrics 1979)
2020 - William "Brad" Smith (B.S. Forestry 1975, M.S. Forestry 1977)
2019 - Stephen Shifley (B.S. Forest Production 1976, M.S. Forest Biometry 1978)
2018 - Ray Moistner
2017 - Tom Wiltrout (B.S. 1975, M.S. 1976)
2016 - John T. "Jack" Costello (B.S. Forestry 1985)
2015 - Scott Allen Jamieson (B.S. Forestry 1984)
2014 - Robert D. Burke (B.S. Forestry and Natural Resources 1960)
2012 - Rolf O. Peterson (PhD Wildlife Ecology)