Manuel C Molles Jr. is an emeritus Professor of Biology at the University of New Mexico, where he has been a member of the faculty and curator in the Museum of Southwestern Biology since 1975. He received his BS from Humboldt State University and his PhD from the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Arizona. Seeking to broaden his geographic perspective, he has taught and conducted ecological research in Latin America, the Caribbean, and Europe. He was awarded a Fulbright Research Fellowship to conduct research on river ecology in Portugal and has held visiting professor appointments in the Department of Zoology at the University of Coimbra, Portugal, in the Laboratory of Hydrology at the Polytechnic University of Madrid, Spain, and at the University of Montana’s Flathead Lake Biological Station.
Originally trained as a marine ecologist and fisheries biologist, the author worked mainly on river and riparian ecology at the University of New Mexico. His research has covered a wide range of ecological levels, including behavioral ecology, population biology, community ecology, ecosystem ecology, biogeography of stream insects, and the influence of a large-scale climate system (El Niño) on the dynamics of southwestern river and riparian ecosystems. His current research interests focus on the influence of climate change and climatic variability on the dynamics of populations and communities along steep gradients of temperature and moisture in the mountains of the Southwest. Throughout his career, Dr. Molles has attempted to combine research, teaching, and service, involving undergraduate as well as graduate students in his ongoing projects. At the University of New Mexico, he taught a broad range of lower division, upper division, and graduate courses, including Principles of Biology, Evolution and Ecology, Stream Ecology, Limnology and Oceanography, Marine Biology, and Community and Ecosystem Ecology. He has taught courses in Global Change and River Ecology at the University of Coimbra, Portugal, and General Ecology and Groundwater and Riparian Ecology at the Flathead Lake Biological Station. Dr. Manuel Molles was named Teacher of the Year by the University of New Mexico for 1995–1996 and Potter Chair in Plant Ecology in 2000. In 2014, he received the Eugene P. Odum Award from the Ecological Society of America based on his “ability to relate basic ecological principles to human affairs through teaching, outreach and mentoring activities.”
