Selected Recognitions

2016: named to the list of 100 most influential people in the history of Great Smoky Mountains National Park as part of the celebration of the 100 year anniversary of the National Park Service.

2016: presented with an Honorable Mention Gold Spokes Award for commuting on bike 5 days a week, week in and week out!

2015: Edward Kidder Graham Award, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, given to a faculty member for service to the state, national, and world.

2015: Pritzlaff Conservation Award from the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden for service to plant conservation.

2014 Awards: Star Award for service to the conservation of the flora of the United States; Order of the Longleaf, State of North Carolina; Proclamation of Peter White Day, Dec. 3, 2014, by the Town of Chapel Hill.

Home Town Hero, WCHL radio, 2012.

Named an “Outstanding Southerner” by Southern Living Magazine, February 2009.

Bennington College, 75^th Anniversary Celebrations, November 2007.

80^th Anniversary Scientific Symposium, Highlands Biological Station, October 2007.

Harriot Voyages of Discovery Lecture, East Carolina University, September 2007.

Ricklefs, Hong, and White (2004) achieves a “top 10” ranking in the year 2006 for citations of Ecography articles published in 2004.

Plenary Speaker, Working Together for the Landscape of Tomorrow, October 2006

Plenary Speaker, 67^th Annual Meeting, Association of Southeastern Biologists, May 2006

Full Time Sustainability Supporter, University of North Carolina Sustainability Office, October 2005

Profile in Southern Living, May 2005

Award of Excellence, 2004, National Garden Clubs, Inc.

Program Excellence Award for the Conservation Garden, 2004, American Association of Botanical Gardens and Arboreta

Sustainability Award, for the Conservation Garden and the Visitor Education Center, 2004, Sustainable North Carolina

BW Wells Lecture, North Carolina State University, 2004

Village Pride Award, WCHL Radio, 2004, Chapel Hill

National Botanical Garden Award, 2003, Federal Interagency Committee on the Management of Invasive Noxious Exotic Weeds

Tar Heel of the Week, 2002, The News and Observer, Raleigh

Star Heel, 2002, The Daily Tar Heel, University of North Carolina

First Prize for Natural History Books, 1998 Excellence in Interpretation Competition, National Park Service, USDI for Wildflowers of the Smokies

Hero on the Hill, 1993, The Daily Tar Heel

Public Service Award to the North Carolina Botanical Garden, North Carolina Nature Conservancy

Recent Interviews: WUNC-TV, North Carolina People with Bill Friday; Talk of the Nation, NPR Radio; The State of Things, WUNC Radio; JWAVE Radio, Tokyo; Radio scripts for the Daily Conservationist with Barbara Cleary; WCHL; WCOM; USA Today; WPVM; Gardening with Nick Federof, Environmental Media Broadcasting; WUNC-TV, Tom Earnhardt’s Exploring North Carolina; WUNC-TV, In the Garden with Brice Lane; Raleigh News and Observer; Daily Tar Heel