Thomas Fox, the Honorable Garland Gray Professor of Forestry, has been named the 2016 Distinguished Alumnus by the University of Maine School of Forest Resources. Fox, who earned a bachelor’s in forestry from UMaine in 1980 and a certificate of advanced study in pulp and paper technology in 1981, was recognized for his career-long contributions to the field of forestry.

Fox serves as co-director of the Forest Productivity Cooperative and as the Virginia Tech site director for the National Science Foundation’s Center for Advanced Forestry Systems. The overall goal of his research and outreach program is to increase the productivity, sustainability, and profitability of managed forests in the U.S. and Latin America. In 2010 he was a Fulbright Scholar and visiting professor at Pontifica Universidad Catolica de Chile, where he worked on issues related to climate change and carbon sequestration.