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STAR Grantee Receives Lifetime Achievement Award
Tuesday, July 13, 2004
NCER Staff Writer
WASHINGTON (NCER) - STAR grantee Charles Goldman 
recently received the 2004 Alfred C. Redfield Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Society of Limnology and Oceanography (ASLO). The award recognizes and honors major, long-term achievements in the fields of limnology and oceanography including research, education, and service to the community and society.
Dr. Goldman is the director of the Tahoe Research Group and professor in the Department of Environmental Science and Policy at the University of California at Davis. Through his groundbreaking research on lake and reservoir function, Dr. Goldman has been recognized as a leading authority for scientific research on inland, deep-water ecosystems. In receiving this award, Goldman’s citation reads, “…for his enduring efforts to understand and protect Lake Tahoe, his inspiring mentorship of numerous students, who themselves have made lasting scientific contributions, and for his tireless advocacy for limnological research, training and stewardship worldwide."
As a STAR grantee, Dr. Goldman worked on a project called “ An Integrated Watershed Approach to Evaluate and Model Ecosystem Effects of Erosion and Pollutant Transport in Urbanized Subalpine Landscapes” that integrated the fields of biology, ecology, limnology, fisheries, hydrology, geology, geochemistry, engineering, and environmental modeling in a multi-disciplinary program designed to provide watershed managers and decision makers with innovative tools for environmental policy at Lake Tahoe. Dr. Goldman was also the Associate Director for EPA’s Center for Ecological Health Research at the University of California-Davis. The primary goal of the center was to understand how multiple stresses affect biological processes in aquatic and terrestrial systems.
Dr. Goldman's fields of interest include global studies of freshwater lakes with an emphasis on biological, chemical, and physical interactions between the surrounding watersheds and lakes. Reflecting this multidisciplinary research approach, Goldman’s long-term studies have forged new territories in the science of limnology, with particular emphasis on eutrophication of lakes, nutrient and trace element limiting factors, the impact of climate and weather, and the use and importance of long-term data sets in environmental research . Data collected over many years at Lake Tahoe, Pyramid Lake, Castle Lake, and Crater Lake among others, have enabled researchers to predict and improve the health of these important ecosystems. Such findings have led to interdisciplinary solutions and conflict resolution in the areas of land-use planning, waste disposal, forest policy, and watershed management.
Dr. Goldman has received numerous awards and citations throughout his career including the Earle A. Chiles Award (1992) from the High Desert Museum in Bend, Oregon; the Albert Einstein World Prize in Science (1998); and the Nevada Medal (2003) awarded by the Desert Research Institute. He was also recently elected founding president of the World Water and Climate Network. During the course of his career, Dr. Goldman has published four books and more than 400 scientific articles and produced four documentary films that are in worldwide distribution. He hosted President Clinton, Vice President Gore, and the governors of California and Nevada aboard the UC-Davis research vessel, John Le Conte, during the Lake Tahoe Presidential Forum in the summer of 1997. Dr. Goldman was a founding member of the Tahoe Research Group and also served as an associate director for the EPA Center for Ecological Health Research. He has made eight expeditions to Lake Baikal in Russia and various hydroelectric investigations in Africa, New Guinea, South and Central America. The University of California is building a world-class environmental laboratory on the shores of Lake Tahoe as a result of his efforts.
Dr. Goldman received his Ph.D. in Limnology and Fisheries from the University of Michigan in 1958. He has an M.S. in zoology and a B.A. in geology from the University of Illinois, Urbana. Dr. Goldman has trained nearly 100 graduate students and 30 postdoctoral researchers during his 45 years at UC-Davis.