Two UWM bird researchers awarded top honor in their field

UWM faculty Linda Whittingham and Peter Dunn have been awarded the 2019 Elliott Coues Award from the American Ornithological Society.

This is one of the highest awards in ornithology, recognizing outstanding and innovative contributions to the study of birds.

Peter Dunn and Linda Whittingham

Together, Whittingham, professor emeritus, and Dunn, a distinguished professor, both in the Department of Biological Sciences, have conducted extensive field studies and molecular lab work on tree swallows and common yellowthroats in North America, and cooperatively breeding birds in Australia. They have been publishing as a team for more than 25 years.

The Coues award has been presented to 47 ornithologists from around the world since 1972, and it includes a Nobel Prize winner, and fellows of the Royal Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

The award is named in honor of Elliott Coues, a pioneering ornithologist and founding member of the society in 1883. The Coues Achievement Award consists of a medal and an honorarium that will be presented to Whittingham and Dunn in June at the annual meeting of the American Ornithological Society in Anchorage, Alaska.

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