Clint Boal, a professor with Texas Tech University's Department of Natural Resources Management and assistant leader of the USGS Texas Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit in Lubbock, has been selected to receive the 2020 President's Award from the Raptor Research Foundation.

"This really came as a surprise," Boal said. "I'm quite dedicated to the Raptor Research Foundation, and it is really very gratifying to be recognized in this way."

Other recent honors for Boal include the Wildlife Society's 2020 W.L. McAtee and G. V. Burger Award for Outstanding Service as an associate editor, along with the Raptor Research Foundation's Fran & Frederick Hamerstrom Award (2019), the most prestigious award presented by the group. It is given in recognition of an individual who has contributed significantly to the understanding of raptor ecology and natural history.

In addition, Boal was elected as a 2019 American Ornithological Society Elective Member (2019), an honor based on significant contributions to ornithology. Founded in 1883, the American Ornithological Society is recognized as one of the world's oldest and largest international ornithological societies.

Boal has authorship/co-authorship of more than 120 peer reviewed papers and 200 professional presentations focused on ecology, conservation and management of wildlife species, editorship of two books, and chairing of two international symposiums. He has served in several capacities of governance of ornithological societies, including past service as president of the Raptor Research Foundation.

He has more than two decades of research projects focused on conservation and understanding of wildlife, with an emphasis on avian species. Recently, he co-edited the book Urban Raptors: Ecology and Conservation of Birds of Prey in Cities with independent researcher Cheryl Dykstra. Boal's other book, Ecology and Conservation of Lesser Prairie-Chickens, co-edited with David Haukos from the USGS Kansas Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit, won the 'Scientific Book of the Year Award' in 2018 from the national and Texas chapters of The Wildlife Society.

Boal, who joined the Texas Tech faculty and the USGS Texas Cooperative Unit in 2000. The Texas Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit was established at Texas Tech in 1988.

CONTACT: Warren Conway, Chairman and Bricker Endowed Chair in Wildlife Management, Department of Natural Resources Management, Texas Tech University at (806) 742-2841 or warren.conway@ttu.edu

0104NM21