IOS Service Awards Presented at the 11th IOS Conference

As is tradition at IOS Conferences, our Service Awards were presented at the end of the Gala Dinner. The Awards are in two types, Special Service Awards and Lifetime Service Awards, and they recognize individuals who have made significant contributions to our knowledge of oaks or to the advancement of the Society’s goals. Each awardee received a plaque fashioned from the great oak tree that stood behind the tomb of Abraham Lincoln in Oak Ridge Cemetery in Springfield, Illinois, USA. The tree was present at the time of Lincoln's funeral in 1875 and remained along the north side of his tomb until it was killed by the record 2012 drought. The foliage was beautifully lobed, and it so impressed James Richard Pennington van Hoey Smith, the director of the Trompenburg Arboretum in Rotterdam and a founding member of IOS, that he requested grafting wood and eventually named it as the cultivar Quercus alba 'Lincoln'. Subsequent propagation has resulted in it being planted in much of Europe as well as some US botanic gardens. The foliage view below was taken long ago from the balcony of Lincoln's Tomb. The IOS is grateful to Guy Sternberg for once again producing these plaques from the wood he has painstakingly preserved for this purpose.

Below are the names of this year's recipients of four Special Service Awards and two Lifetime Service Awards, with a brief paragraph outlining the reasons for each award, written by the IOS member who nominated each candidate.

Special Service Award: Yueh-Fong Chen

Prof. Chen, Founder of the Taiwan Academy of Ecology, has worked tirelessly to secure the protection of oaks and other Fagaceae in Taiwan and organize the public to advocate for key habitat loss. Problems serve to engage people but often don’t. For those oak ecosystems struggling in rural, fragmented, and degraded places, attention from society is rare. One of Prof. Chen’s contributions has been to scale up scientific knowledge and ecological values cognitively and emotionally. He has made the research and promotions for oaks financially viable over the past four years, and successfully created a room for policymakers to recognize the urgent priority of protecting Fagaceae forests. Now Taiwanese, whether human or non-human, are engaging in a great war, testing whether this island can endure the unrestrained economic growth and unpredictable climate change. Oaks are always at the forefront due to their interconnected and umbrella-like capacity for supporting a wide range of creatures. Prof. Chen is standing with them and managing to keep their integrity. On top of that, he is dedicated to raising ethical concerns among individuals, rebuilding a connection across solitary souls.

Nominated by Yi-Shan Tsai

See Prof. Chen's post about his award here.

Special Service Award: Paul Manos

Paul has been, for more than 30 years, at the forefront of research sorting out the systematics of Fagales. He has been a leader in constructing current understanding of oak evolutionary history, and some of his earlier work laid the foundations for our understanding of the relationships within the family Fagaceae and between it and its closest relatives. More recently, he has co-authored many of the landmark publications in oak research, including, to mention only three: “Genomic Landscape of the Global Oak Phylogeny” 2020; “An Updated Infrageneric Classification of the North American Oaks (Quercus Subgenus Quercus)” 2021; and “Sympatric Parallel Diversification of Major Oak Clades in the Americas and the Origins of Mexican Species Diversity” 2018. He has been a regular speaker at IOS Conferences since 2015.

Nominated by Béatrice Chassé

Special Service Award: Susana Valencia Ávalos

For more than 20 years, Susana has been at the forefront of sorting out the complexities of the taxonomy, ecology, and phylogeny of the Mexican oaks, and their place in the global oak phylogeny. Along with several nomenclatural revisions that have resolved important issues (e.g., Q. acutifolia/Q. conspersa/Q. grahamii), she has also described such wonderful species as Q. nixoniana (2003), Q. delgadoana (2011), and Q. meavei (2016). She is extremely helpful to those doing field work, always willing to check samples and sort out identification problems if she can. Over the past two decades, she has authored or co-authored some of the most important publications in the field: "Diversidad del género Quercus (Fagaceae) en México" 2004, "Species Delimitation in the Genus Quercus (Fagaceae)” 2020; "Genomic Landscape of the Global Oak Phylogeny" 2020; "Sympatric Parallel Diversification of Major Oak Clades in the Americas and the Origins of Mexican Species Diversity" 2018.

Nominated by Béatrice Chassé

Special Service Award: Maricela Rodríguez Acosta

Maricela Rodríguez has dedicated her life to oak conservation, a passion she’s nurtured since childhood. Formerly a board member of the International Oak Society and director of the botanic gardens at Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla for 30 years, she brings deep expertise in oak horticulture and stewardship. As the Global Conservation Consortium for Oak (GCCO) Coordinator for Mexico and Central America, she leads efforts to protect threatened oak species in one of the world’s richest biodiversity hotspots. Over the past four years, Maricela has launched and supported numerous initiatives focused on oak collection, propagation, and research, while empowering local communities to become conservationists. She co-developed the Species Steward Training Program, “Guardianes de Quercus”, which trains stewards to conserve oaks in ex-situ, near-situ, and in-situ collections. The program is expanding through workshops across the region. In 2023, she received an IOS Oak Conservation and Research Fund grant to support work on the endangered Q. rubramenta. Maricela has also authored influential publications, including the widely cited Manual para la Propagación de Quercus. Her leadership, dedication, and outreach continue to inspire global efforts in oak conservation and education. The GCCO is fortunate to have her at the helm.

Nominated by Amy Byrne

Special Service Award: Béatrice Chassé

This Award is for someone who has earned a reputation as an avid acorn hunter. Strangely enough her last name means “hunted”, so the chase in some way or another seems to have always been in her destiny. It is an award that is long overdue, for the recipient has contributed a very great deal to the Society and its mission, enriching many oak collections through her collecting trips in Mexico, the USA and the Far East, including of course her and her husband’s own world-class arboretum, and helping to spread the oak gospel through her thrilling accounts of her trips published in our Journal International Oaks and through her lectures and presentations. Most importantly, as the Editor of our Journal for 15 years, she has raised the standard of our principal publication to make it one of the most admired and respected plant society journals. 

Nominated by Roderick Cameron

Lifetime Service Award: Mark Coggeshall

Mark has been involved with IOS since its first conference in 1994 and became a member in 1996. His lifelong dedication to plant propagation began in childhood, learning from his father, a lead propagator at the Arnold Arboretum. Throughout his career—with the Indiana DNR, Purdue University, University of Missouri, and USFS—Mark has focused on oak research, improvement, and propagation. He’s contributed to numerous studies on Quercus species, including flood tolerance, progeny testing, grafting, and genome mapping. Though retired, Mark continues to lead conservation efforts, notably at Stephens Lake Park Arboretum with the GCCO’s Quercus acerifolia project. He’s guided the initiative from its inception, collecting scion, grafting hundreds of trees, and tracking phenological data. His grant-writing expertise helped secure funding from BCGI and USFS, enabling large-scale propagation—1,100 grafts this spring alone, half thanks to Mark’s hands-on work. Mark’s generosity, expertise, and passion for oak conservation have made a lasting impact on colleagues and the field. His work not only advances science but also inspires future conservation models. Dr. Coggeshall’s lifelong service to oaks and the IOS community makes him a truly deserving candidate.

Nominated by Ryan Russell

Lifetime Service Award: Shaun Haddock

Shaun served on the Board of Directors for a decade, as Tour Director for the whole period, and also as Vice President and President. He helmed the Society during a tough period, leading it safely through the Covid pandemic, piloting the IOS as steadily as he had piloted jumbo jets during his professional career as a British Airways pilot. It was thanks to travels for his job that he was able to collect and introduce to cultivation the Himalayan species Quercus baloot. At his Arboretum de la Bergerette in France he has grown oaks for some 35 years in demanding conditions, establishing an impressive collection, which has been recognized as a French National Collection by the Conservatoire des Collections Végétales Spécialisées. He has contributed many articles to IOS publications, including the memorable Oaks in a Difficult Climate in 2012, sharing his experiences growing many oaks rarely found in cultivation. His inclusive hospitality has made an immeasurable contribution to the community of oak conservationists and enthusiasts.

Nominated by Dirk Giseburt