Bollenbach Chairs
About the Bollenbach Chair
'Dr. Fred Guthery held the first Bollenbach Chair in Wildlife Biology from 1997 to 2012. During Dr. Guthery’s tenure as the Bollenbach Chair, he maintained a highly productive and successful research program that focused primarily on northern bobwhite ecology. With Dr. Guthery’s retirement in December 2012, the Bollenbach Chair became unoccupied until July 2014. During this time, it was decided to create a second Bollenbach Chair position. The separation of the Bollenbach Chair into two chair positions provided a unique opportunity to elevate the influence of research results on wildlife conservation and management in the state and beyond. In July 2014, Dr. Davis and Dr. Elmore were selected as the new Bollenbach Chairs. Dr. Davis holds the Bollenbach Chair with a primary focus on upland gamebird research and Dr. Elmore held the Bollenbach Chair with a primary focus on outreach and extension for upland gamebirds until his departure from OSU in 2023. One of the central goals of the Bollenbach Chair is to build on the successful research program that Dr. Guthery began as well as to expand the upland game research program at OSU to focus on other upland game birds such prairie chicken, wild turkey, scaled quail, and ring-necked pheasant. We intend to actively pursue funding to further build the upland gamebird research program and to strengthen multi-disciplinary teams to address issues in wildlife conservation and management.
History
Dr. Charles J. Scifres, formerly Associate Director of the Oklahoma Agricultural Experiment Station at OSU, and former Governor Henry Bellmon began developing the idea of an Endowed Chair in Wildlife in the 1980s. Dr. Charles Browning, Dean Emeritus of the Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Governor Bellmon, and Mel and Merle Bollenbach took the lead in raising private funds ($500,000), which were matched by the Oklahoma Regents for Higher Education to establish the necessary endowment. Finally, a significant long-term commitment by the OSU Agricultural Experiment Station was made and the Chair became a reality. The Chair is named after the late Irvin Bollenbach, long-time friend of Governor Bellmon and well-known rancher and bobwhite hunter and enthusiast from Kingfisher, OK. Fred S. Guthery became the first Bollenbach Chair in August 1997.
The Chair operates under the auspices of the Oklahoma Agricultural Experiment Station. Salary comes from the Experiment Station and from revenue earned by the Bollenbach Endowment housed at the OSU Foundation. The endowment may provide additional revenue to support graduate students and research costs.
Mission
- Establish biologically and economically viable management systems for private range and forest lands,
- Advise and direct graduate students doing research on natural resources,
- Collaborate with wildlife, forestry, and range specialists to get management information into the hands of users.
- Conduct research on game and nongame birds in upland settings.
Dr. Craig Davis
Craig received his B.S. in natural resources with distinction in wildlife management
from Ohio State University in 1988 and his M.S. in wildlife biology from Iowa State
University in 1991 where he studied the ecology of wet meadow invertebrates and sandhill
crane foraging ecology. He completed his Ph.D. from Texas Tech University in 1996
where he studied the ecology and management of shorebirds in the Playa Lakes Region
of Texas. Following his Ph.D., Craig spent a year as a temporary faculty member at
the University of Rhode Island and four years as the avian ecologist for the Platte
River Whooping Crane Trust in central Nebraska. Craig took a position as Assistant
Professor at Oklahoma State University in 2001 and was promoted to Associate Professor
in 2007 and Professor in 2012. He has published 45 peer-reviewed articles in a wide
variety of journals including Ecological Applications, Journal of Applied Ecology,
Wetlands, Auk, Condor, Ecological Restoration, Landscape Ecology, Rangeland Ecology
and Management, Wildlife Monographs, and Journal of Wildlife Management. In 2013,
Craig co-edited a three volume book on Wetland Research Techniques. Craig’s research
has focused on several research areas including the response of grassland birds to
fire-grazing interactions, assessment and classification of wetlands, wetland bird
ecology, aquatic and terrestrial invertebrate ecology, and upland gamebird ecology
and management. Craig currently teaches two undergraduate courses (Wildlife Management
Techniques and Wetland Ecology and Management) and two graduate courses (Advanced
Wetland Ecology and Wetland Wildlife Ecology). Craig has served as the Bollenbach
Chair in Wildlife Biology since 2014. He has received the James A. Whatley Award of
Merit for Research from OSU, the Texas Chapter of Wildlife Society’s Best Technical
Publication Award, and the Charles E. Bessey Award for Best Natural Science Article
from the Center for Great Plains Studies. He has also served on the editorial board
of the Society of Wetland Scientists and Society of Range Management. Craig’s other
passions include spending time in the Sandhills of Nebraska hunting sharp-tails and
prairie chickens, chasing turkeys in western Oklahoma, drawing and painting wildlife,
and spending time with his wife, Cheryl.