Illinois Natural History Survey Reports

              1
the planning and development of
the Center’s $9-million Hazard-ous
Materials Laboratory, a state-of-
the-art research facility located
at the University of Illinois in
Urbana-Champaign.
Dr. Thomas has been active
both nationally and international-ly
in the area of pollution preven-tion
and sustainable development.
He was on the fi rst advisory
board of the National Pollution
Prevention Roundtable from
1990 to 1994 and was chair of
the roundtable’s board of direc-tors
from October 1993 to Sep-tember
1994. He represented the
roundtable on the Environmental
Protection Agency’s American
Institute for Pollution Prevention
from 1992 through 1996, and was
on the institute’s executive com-mittee
beginning in August 1993.
He has worked with numerous
countries, including Brazil,
Egypt, Thailand, and Malaysia,
to develop pollution prevention
and cleaner production programs.
larger investigation of the
river by the Illinois Natural
History Survey. His Ph.D.
thesis was a comparative
ecological study of six spe-cies
of drums (Sciaenidae)
of the Delaware River estu-ary.
Thomas was an INHS
staff member during the
1960s, is a certifi ed fi sheries
scientist with the American
Fisheries Society, and has
held memberships in the
Federation of Research Bi-ologists,
American Associa-tion
for the Advancement of
Science, and the Society of
Icthyologists and Herpetologists.
From 1970 through early 1985,
Dr. Thomas worked for two envi-ronmental
consulting fi rms and a
Boston-based architect engineer-ing
fi rm. He directed environmen-tal
studies for a number of major
projects, including the fi rst pro-posed
fl oating nuclear plant, the
Oyster Creek Nuclear Station, the
Department of Energy’s proposed
Ocean Thermal Energy Conver-sion
program, pumped storage
plants in upstate New York, a larg-er
water supply reservoir in New
Jersey, and numerous transmission
line projects.
From May 1985 through No-vember
1997, Dr. Thomas was
the Director of the Illinois Waste
Management and Research Cen-ter,
which is a division within the
Illinois Department of Natural
Resources. He oversaw all the
Center’s activities, including the
following programs: pollution pre-vention,
research and laboratory
services, information, and data
management. He also coordinated
I LLINOIS
NATURAL
HI STORY
S U R V E Y R e p o r t s
January/
February 1998
No. 349
I N S I D E David L. Thomas New Chief of INHS
Photo courtesy of Illinois Waste Management and Research Center
Illinois Corn Cob a
Weapon Against Insect
Pests
2
Insects and Fire: Too
Much of a Good Thing?
4
Fire, Savanna Restora-tion,
and Avian Popula-tions
in Midwestern Oak
Forests
5
White Grub
Management Options
in Turfgrass
5
Species Spotlight:
Downy Woodpecker
6
The Naturalist's
Apprentice:
Illinois Woodpeckers
7
The Board of Natural Resources
and Conservation appointed Da-vid
L. Thomas, Director of the
Illinois Waste Management and
Research Center (WMRC), as the
new Chief of the Illinois Natural
History Survey (INHS), Board
Chairman Brent Manning an-nounced
in November.
Dr. Thomas began his du-ties
at INHS on December 1. He
replaces Dr. Lorin Nevling, who
retired last year.
“The Board and I believe
David Thomas is a demonstrated
leader who takes a broad view
of issues and an interdisciplinary
approach to solving problems,”
Manning said. “His extensive
experience ranging from envi-ronmental
consulting, solving
real-time problems for industry,
leading the Waste Management
and Research Center, and main-taining
his strong interest in ecol-ogy
and sustainable development
make him ideally suited to lead
the Natural History Survey into
the twenty-fi rst century.”
Manning added, "He has led
the Illinois Waste Management
and Research Center from its
infancy and developed it into a
national leader in pollution pre-vention
and waste management.”
Thomas directed the WMRC
for the last 12 years. He has a
bachelor of science degree in
zoology from the University of
Illinois, and a master’s degree in
ecology also from the University
of Illinois. His doctorate was in
ecology and systematics from
Cornell University. His master’s
thesis was on the life history of
Percina darters of the Kaskaskia
River, and was done as part of a
“...David Thomas
is a demonstrated
leader who takes
a broad view of
issues and an
interdisciplinary
approach to solving
problems...”