DURHAM, N.C. – Stuart Pimm, Doris Duke Professor of Conservation Ecology at Duke University’s Nicholas School of the Environment, will receive the 2010 Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement.

The Tyler Prize is one of the premier awards for environmental science, environmental health and energy. It is administered by the Davidson Conference Center of the University of Southern California.

Pimm is an internationally recognized expert on biodiversity, species extinction and habitat loss. He and fellow 2010 recipient Laurie Marker, co-founder and executive director of the Cheetah Conservation Fund in Otjiwarongo, Namibia, will receive their prizes at a ceremony on April 23 in Beverly Hills, Calif. They will present public lectures at the Davidson Conference Center at 2 p.m. April 22.

The Tyler Prize carries a $200,000 cash award and gold medal. In selecting Pimm and Marker for this year’s honors, the Tyler Prize Executive Committee recognized them “for their scientific contributions, their understanding of ecosystem functions, and for their applications of this knowledge to the management and restoration of ecosystems to the benefit of their inhabitants.”

Pimm is widely cited for his research on biodiversity, species extinction and habitat loss in Africa, South America and Central America, as well as the Everglades. His work has contributed to new practices and policy for species preservation and habitat restoration in many of the world’s most threatened ecosystems. In recognition of his lifetime contributions to science and conservation, in 2006 he was awarded both the Heineken Prize for Environmental Sciences from the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the Edward T. LaRue III Memorial Award from the Society for Conservation Biology. He received a Pew Scholarship for Conservation and the Environment in 1993 and an Aldo Leopold Leadership Fellowship in 1999. The Institute of Scientific Information recognized him in 2002 as one of the world’s most highly cited scientists. In his letter nominating Pimm for the Tyler Prize, Edward O. Wilson, an emeritus Harvard University professor and himself a Tyler Laureate, said Pimm’s achievements “serve as an environmental conservation template.”

The Tyler Prize was established by the late John and Alice Tyler in 1973 and is awarded annually to individuals and organizations associated with exemplary environmental accomplishments. For more information on the prize and its recipients, go to http://www.usc.edu/dept/LAS/tylerprize.