History:
The “Sellner Chesapeake Guardian Award” was first presented to Kevin Sellner at the 2014 Chesapeake Modeling Symposium for “Exceptional Service Dedicated to the Advancement of Community Modeling in the Chesapeake Bay Region”. The CCMP has established this award in Sellner’s honor in appreciation for his more than 30 years of research, guidance and service to the Chesapeake Bay research, management and policy maker communities. Subsequent awards have been given to Gary Shenk, Carl Cerco, Marjorie Friedrichs, and Karl Blankenship.
This is a standing award presented every 2 years. The sixth awardee was recognized at the Chesapeake Community Research Symposium in June, 2024.
Nominations:
In keeping with the evolution of the Chesapeake Community Research Symposium toward a broader scope, the award will be made based on contributions to management-relevant science generally.
Individuals nominated should have made significant and selfless contributions to the research, management and policy maker communities in Chesapeake Bay and/or its watershed. The nominee should have demonstrated sustained contributions. A worthy recipient might also be someone who has influenced Chesapeake research and / or management via teaching and training. Efforts in support of community and open source databases and models are also valued.
The next round of nominations will be open beginning mid-October 2025 and the seventh award will be awarded at the 2026 Chesapeake Community Research Symposium.
2024 Sellner Chesapeake Guardian Recipients:
We are proud to announce the recipients of the 2024 Sellner Chesapeake Guardian Award! Denice Heller Wardrop and Kurt Stephenson were recognized for their hard work as the co-editors of the pivotal Comprehensive Evaluation of System Response (CESR) report developed through the Chesapeake Bay Program’s Scientific and Technical Advisory Committee (STAC).
Wardrop, Executive Director of the Chesapeake Research Consortium and Research Professor of Geography at Penn State University, and Stephenson, Professor at Virginia Tech, guided the report’s development and key findings around why progress toward attaining Chesapeake Bay Program water quality has been slower than expected– and what lessons have been learned to accelerate future progress. The highlighting of opportunities for increased effectiveness was a major objective of the report, and since the report’s May 2023 release, the two have given over 60 presentations to share both CESR’s findings and implications.
As Gary Shenk, USGS hydrologist and STAC member notes, “Because of [Wardrop’s] leadership and the efforts of the CESR team, the report and its outreach strategies have been highly impactful as the Chesapeake Bay Program partnership begins to consider its future beyond 2025.”
There are 60 listed contributors to the report itself, and it summarizes the work of many more scientists and engineers. As Wardrop notes, “This award not only acknowledges the Herculean effort that STAC undertook in compiling the CESR report but also the incredible wealth of knowledge and experience that has accumulated over the 40 years of effort. We have learned a tremendous amount as a community, and that learning provides key insights for the path ahead.”