Dr. F. Richard Hauer, Is a Professor Emeritus and Distinguished Professor at the University of Montana. He taught stream ecology and mentored graduate students at Flathead Lake Biological Station for over 35 years and held the Stream and River Ecology Endowed Chair for 18 of those years. He is the Founding Director (2008-2016) of the University of Montana’s intercollegiate graduate program “Systems Ecology” and Founding co-Director (2011-2015) of the statewide, interuniversity research center “Montana Institute on Ecosystems”. Dr. Hauer’s research has encompassed the broad interdisciplinary field of “Systems Ecology” with a focus on the basic science of stream ecology and the relationships of bio-physical processes of gravel-bed rivers and their floodplains. His research has extended across the Americas from the Bering Sea in western Alaska to the southern tip of South America in Patagonia. He has conducted his gravel-bed river research in every western state of the US including the Snake River in WY. He has served in developing environmental policy, implementation and assessment of streams and wetlands as an advisor and instructor to the US Army Corps of Engineers and the US EPA.