The founder of LTER Israel, Prof. Moshe Shachak, honored with a lifetime achievement award for pioneering work in desert ecology and ecosystem engineering

LTER Israel is very proud to report that Professor Moshe Shachak, ecosystems ecologist and founder of LTER Israel, has been awarded a lifetime achievement award by the Israel Society of Ecology and Environmental Sciences (article in Hebrew). Moshe’s expertise is in desert ecosystems, from which he advanced to modeling of complex ecosystem interactions (or, as Moshe likes to put it, “I, like Moses of the Bible, explored the desert for 40 years”).  Moshe, along with his colleagues, Professors Clive Jones and John Lawton, introduced the concept of “ecosystem engineering” to ecology – a concept that explains how biological organisms modify their physical environments, thereby changing ecosystem flows of energy and matter. Aside from his ongoing academic achievements, Moshe was instrumental in setting up an environmental high school, a department for desert ecology in Ben Gurion University, and the Israel LTER network. He has also been a long-time advisor and inspiration to eLTER and International LTER.

In 2010, Moshe, along with Dr. Elli Groner, hosted the annual ILTER meeting in Sede Boker. Moshe was active in the eLTER H2020 funded “European Long-Term Ecosystem and socio-ecological Research Infrastructure”. In 2017, he organised and hosted the workshop “Toward a unified framework for life supporting systems in the Anthropocene” where eLTER’s “Whole Systems Approach” (WAILS) was originally conceived.  In recent years, Moshe has been developing the conceptual framework for understanding ecosystem function via interacting geological, biological, and social diversities – a framework that contributes to the eLTER WAILS.

Please join us in congratulating Moshe!

Prof. Moshe Shachak giving a keynote lecture on the history of Israel LTER at the 25^th anniversary meeting of the national network at the Ramat Hanadiv LTER site (2024). Photo courtesy of Daniel Orenstein.

Moshe with Arnon Karnieli, Elli Groner, and Daniel Orenstein – eLTER meeting in Hania, Greece (2015).

Moshe (with Shayli Dor Haim and Efrat Sheffer) at his 80^th birthday party.

Moshe at work – Northern Negev