DENTON (UNT), Texas - Ricardo Rozzi, professor in the University of North Texas Department of Philosophy and Religion, has received the 2017 Enrique Beltran Prize for the Conservation of Natural Resources from The Wildlife Society of Mexico. Rozzi is the first researcher and scholar from outside of Mexico to receive the award.
The prize, named for the founder of the Mexican Institute for Sustainable Natural Resources, was presented in conjunction with the International Council on Natural Resources and Wildlife at the 2017 International Congress for Natural Resources. The prize recognizes contributions to interdisciplinary research and practice of environmental ethics.
Rozzi joined the faculty of UNT's Department of Philosophy and Religion in 2004. A native of Chile, he has conducted environmental ethics and conservation research in Chile's Cape Horn region since 2000. In 2005, he co-founded the Sub-Antarctic Biocultural Conservation Program, which is coordinated by the University of Magallanes in Punta Arenas, Chile; the Omora Foundation in Chile and the Millennium Institute of Ecology and Biodiversity in Washington, D.C., as well as UNT. The program takes students to Chile's UNESCO Cape Horn Biophere Reserve and the Omora Ethnobotanical Park in Puerto Williams, Chile, for study and research.
Rozzi, who holds a part-time faculty appointment at the University of Magallanes, continues as the program's co-director. He is also a member of the board of directors for UNT's Center for Environmental Philosophy. His awards from UNT include the Citation for Distinguished Service to International Education and the 2014 College of Arts and Sciences Award for Research Excellence.
In December 2013, he and other researchers in the Millennium Institute's Outreach Program received the National Prize in Science Education Innovation, Chile from Fundación Ciencia Joven, a nonprofit organization in Chile with a mission of improving science education. Rozzi was also a co-recipient of the National Prize for Excellence in Outreach and Teaching of Science given by the Educational Program of the National Science Foundation of Chile.