Dr. Henry A. Regier C.M.: A tribute and felicitation by AEHMS

The Aquatic Ecosystem Health and Management Society (AEHMS) organized a special tribute symposium at the 53rd Annual International Association for Great Lakes Research (IAGLR) Conference (18 May 2010) to honour Dr. Henry Regier. This symposium was held to highlight Dr. Regier's many contributions to science and society following his investiture into the Order of Canada on 7 April 2010.Response to the tribute symposium was overwhelming and it is estimated that over 200 participants attended this function held in a large auditorium (Figure 3) at the University of Toronto, where Henry had worked for much of his career. An organizing committee was established, consisting of Drs. Mohi Munawar, Ken Minns, Brian Shuter, Joe Leach, and Gary Sprules.Henry's students and colleagues who had worked closely with him in various capacities were invited and the following scientists were asked to speak about Henry's contribution to science and their own personal experiences and interactions with him: Mohi Munawar, John Magnuson, Ann Zimmerman, Gail Krantzberg, and Gavin Christie. Consequently, the tribute symposium was comprised of an introduction by Mohi Munawar followed by four presentations that collectively attempted to span the life, work, and impact of Dr. Regier on aquatic sciences and fisheries.The symposium was chaired by Dr. Munawar, the president of the AEHMS, who briefly highlighted Henry's impact on aquatic sciences and fisheries, as well as on the AEHMS. Abstracts given below (Book of abstracts, IAGLR 2010) capture the sequence of the tribute and hopefully will provide a glimpse into this exciting and interesting tribute ceremony.M. MunawarFisheries and Oceans Canada Burlington, ON, CanadaAquatic Ecosystem Health & Management Society; Fisheries and Oceans CanadaThe continuing, long-term contributions of Professor Henry Regier to Great Lakes science are monumental. His impact is not restricted to North American Great Lakes, but extends globally, including his peerless contributions to UNESCO's International Biological Program, Food and Agricultural Organization, UN's Stockholm conference on the Human Environment, as well as many other national and international agencies. Professor Regier always promoted and encouraged ecosystem-based sciences, including his staunch support of the Aquatic Ecosystem Health and Management Society (AEHMS). He has published excellent articles focusing on ecological integrity in the Society's journal and continues to serve on its Emeritus Advisory Board. The Great Lakes research community and the AEHMS are indeed pleased to honour Dr. Regier by convening this tribute session.(IAGLR, 2010 http://iaglr.org/conference/downloads/2010_abstracts.pdf)J. Magnuson,1 B. Shuter2,3, C. K. Minns2,41Emeritus Professor, Center for Limnology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA2Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, M5S 3B2, Canada3Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources4Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Burlington, ON, L7R 4A6, CanadaHenry Regier is a scientist whose contribution and influence are important to fish and fisheries science, to broader perspectives of large-scale transdisciplinary science, and to the many colleagues and friends who have been touched by his thoughts and ideas. He is an outstanding scientist, leader, and mentor. He is also a humanist and a philosophical conscience for us all. Not content to let the facts speak for themselves, he thinks deeply about the meaning of science conducted by himself and others, and the importance of the science to challenges from global climate change, to global fisheries, and to rehabilitation of the Laurentian Great Lakes. We are fortunate to have been influenced by his science, his leadership, his mentoring, and his conscience. This talk reviews the roots and the significance of Henry Regier's contributions to science.(IAGLR, 2010 http://iaglr.org/conference/downloads/2010_abstracts.pdf)A. P. ZimmermanEcology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, CanadaThe research community is familiar with Henry's science, β-fisheries management he called it. We know, as his Order of Canada citation notes, of his leadership nationally and internationally. He played a similar role as educator, mentor and academic leader within the University. Henry was at the ―teach-ins of the 70s. His Aquatic Macrosystems course exposed generations of students to new ideas and new vocabulary: not just ecology but ekistics, not just ecogenic, but holonocratic. His pathology of ecosystems and ecological therapies inspired; he laid out connections between the degradation of urban form in the Great Lakes Basin and the deterioration of its aquatic ecosystems. He argued for bioregionalism. These ideas resonate in the theses of his graduate students. Henry persistently but gently also tried to educate his colleagues: focus on the interdisciplinary; equity is interpersonal, intergenerational, interjurisdictional and interspecies. He talked networks. He argued for sustainability before it became a meaningless buzzword. Henry took on all comers in pushing his ideas up the University bureaucracy, arguing passionately for change. His last stand as Director of the Institute for Environmental Studies was outstanding.(IAGLR, 2010 http://iaglr.org/conference/downloads/2010_abstracts.pdf)G. Krantzberg1, J. Gannon21ArcelorMittal Dofasco Centre for Engineering & Public Policy, McMaster University, ON, Canada2Great Lakes Regional Office, IJC, Windsor, ON, CanadaHenry Regier marshaled the concepts of ecosystem and integrity into the binational regime in the Great Lakes Basin in the early 1970s. We discuss how they were made explicit under the 1978 Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement. The 1987 Protocol helped to make explicit practical meaning of ecosystem integrity of the Great Lakes Basin in practical terms. The Great Lakes Research Advisory Board of the IJC, which had Dr. Regier's scholarship at its core, saw the ecosystem approach as a “necessary integrative framework” linking many human activities with the non-human parts of the Ecosystem and biosphere. The main conclusion of the GLRA was that the “accent on water quality objectives in the absence of an ecosystem approach was constraining the ability to prevent pollution of the Great Lakes”. We discuss the evolution of the approach and its revolutionary contributions to resource management around the globe at a myriad of scales.(IAGLR, 2010 http://iaglr.org/conference/downloads/2010_abstracts.pdf)G. C. Christie1, S. S. Crawford2, S. A. Bocking3, T. H. Whillans3, and M. E. Gaden11Great Lakes Fishery Commission, Ann Arbor, MI, USA2University of Guelph, Guelph, ON, Canada3Trent University, Peterborough, ON, CanadaWith challenging science and catalytic energy, Henry Regier has played a central role in the application of an ecosystem approach to fisheries science in the Great Lakes and around the world. Our understanding of stress-response in aquatic systems emerged in his early Great Lakes fisheries work. The framework from his doctoral research comparing fish ponds formed the basis for a comparative ecosystem approach that emerged in the Salmonid Communities in Oligotrophic Lakes (SCOL) Symposium in 1971 and has continued to be a foundation for evaluating systems responses to human action. From his work, fisheries science on the Great Lakes and in Ontario emerged from perceptions of closed, linear and deterministic elements that could be described with mathematical equations to new understanding of open, non-linear, and self-organizing systems. This systems approach continues to evolve in fisheries science extending from its origins with Henry and his colleagues on the Great Lakes to marine systems today. Committed to the human dimension of fisheries management, Henry's work with institutions at all scales shaped governance of the Great Lakes. We will examine the effects of this ecosystem approach on successes in fisheries restoration on the Great Lakes and consider the direction Henry's work points for future challenges.(IAGLR, 2010 http://iaglr.org/conference/downloads/2010_abstracts.pdf)As an alternative to asking Dr. Regier to respond in depth at the Symposium to the ideas and events explored by the other presenters, Dr. Regier was invited to prepare an essay on the general theme of “the ecosystem approach: past, present and future.” His excellent response appears in the article entitled, Perspectives on an ecosystem approach to ecogenic challenges in the Great Laurentian Basin and beyond which follows this preface.We sincerely thank the speakers for their hard work in preparing an overview and synthesis of Henry's life so effectively. Other colleagues, scientists and students who helped in various ways to make this event a success include: Dave Dempsey, John Gannon, Andrew Hamilton, Joe Leach, Nick Mandrak, Catherine Masson, Ed Mills, Gary Sprules; and the AEHMS staff: Jennifer Lorimer, Susan Blunt, Lisa Elder, Mark Fitzpatrick, and Heather Niblock.

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