Aton Forest Fellow

Dr. Frank Egler created the Aton Forest Fellowship in 1981 to provide for some continued ecological research that is philosophically compatible with his mission to do holistic, long-term, low-impact, and low-cost research on forest succession.

Dr. Egler was a vociferous champion of independent scientific research. In fact for his entire career he railed against the “bureaucratic” actions and impulses of what he deemed to be “narrow-minded” academic and research institutions, many of which he was affiliated with, but none for any long periods of time. So strong was his belief in the value of independent research that in partnership with his trusted Aton board member William A. Niering, the Lucretia L. Allyn Professor of Botany at Connecticut College he created an independent and separately funded entity called the Aton Forest Fellowship Irrevocable Trust, with three independent trustees. He insisted that the Fellows’ research would be “unhampered by economic compulsions” and not “confined by an excessive emphasis on the theoretical deductive aspects of research which are unrelated to the balancing effects of a more empirical inductive approach” like that pursued by others.

However, Egler fully intended that the lifetime Fellow(s) work closely with Aton Forest, Inc. as the Cooperating Non-profit, and that “the resident Fellow(s) be reasonably involved in the multiplicity of the activities and responsibilities that created Aton Forest in the first place.”

Researcher Jeff Davis was made the first Aton Forest Fellow in 1981. Researcher and former Aton Forest director John Anderson was a subsequent Fellow. Learn about the current Fellow below.

The current Aton Fellow is one of several researchers working in Aton Forest preserves. We aim to fund additional researchers and fellows in the future.