Presentation of the 2015 ASP Distinguished Service Award to John Janovy Jr.

This award recognizes the many contributions of Dr. John Janovy Jr. to ASP. John’s indelible influence was highlighted in several exceedingly strong support letters written by former students, including both of us, Ben Hanelt, and Gabriel Langford, as well as his long-time colleagues Gerry Esch and Scott Gardner. The ASP Distinguished Service Award Committee—Nancy Smith, Ann Adams, Reggie Blaylock, and Tavis Anderson—then agreed that John was a worthy recipient, which is saying something because the last recipient, Bill Campbell, is a tough act to follow. Here, we briefly describe how John has brought a sense of community to ASP by regularly attending ASP and regional society meetings; by recruiting new members; by serving in all the key ASP leadership positions; and by promoting parasitology in academia, popular books, and social media. John or ‘‘JJ,’’ as he is better known by his students and close friends, has regularly attended and presented at ASP meetings for 53 years (1962–2015). He began his pursuit of parasitology as a graduate student under the mentorship of J. T. Self at the University of Oklahoma. J. T. Self passed away in 1995, so more recent members of our society never had the pleasure of meeting him; however, any of John’s current or former students and colleagues can easily recognize that John embodies many of the traits he admired in J. T. Self. The eloquently written In Memoriam John wrote for J. T. Self (Janovy, 1996) should be required reading for anyone in an ASP leadership position because there are many insights within that may help make ASP an even better, more populated society. For instance, according to John, J. T. Self taught him the following: ‘‘never give up, never give in, learn whole organism biology first and best because that’s where the great functional questions can be found, treat those you depend on with respect, surround yourself with good students and work hard to help them succeed, and never forget that we all are human beings with wives, children, and homes.’’ By adopting this philosophy, John had no trouble recruiting students to his research laboratory, which meant many new recruits to ASP. Many of John’s students (32 graduate students and more than 50 undergraduate researchers) have presented at ASP and regional parasitology meetings, and at least 13 of his former graduate students are current members who themselves bring students to the national and regional society meetings, and serve on many ASP committees. Thus, the ‘‘Janovian–J. T. Self’’ way of thinking is likely to influence ASP and the next generation of parasitology for years to come. What exactly does ‘‘Janovian’’ mean? Perhaps this excerpt from his book Dunwoody Pond (1994) provides some more insight:

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