John Sessions, NARA’s team leader for feedstock logistics and distinguished professor and chair of the Forest Operations Management program in the College of Forestry at Oregon State University (OSU) will receive the Award in Forest Science, one of nine national awards given by the Society of American Foresters (SAF). Below is the news release distributed by SAF:

The Society of American Foresters (SAF) has announced that John Sessions, distinguished professor and chair of the Forest Operations Management program in the College of Forestry at Oregon State University (OSU), will receive its nine —one of nine national awards that the Society is giving this year.

SAF’s Award in Forest Science recognizes distinguished individual research in any branch of the quantitative, managerial, and/or social sciences leading to the advancement of forestry. Presented annually, the award includes a $1,000 honorarium.

For more than four decades, John Sessions has devoted significant time and energy to forest engineering and management operations research and education. His work experience includes positions in the USDA Forest Service, the private sector in South America, international forest consultancy, and as a college professor. He currently holds the position of distinguished professor and chairs the Forest Operations Management program in the College of Forestry at Oregon State University (OSU).

Through his work, Sessions has advanced the field of forest engineering through technical contributions in logging mechanics, forest road engineering, transportation planning, forest operations analysis, harvest scheduling, and forest economics. The results of his research have been published in every major journal in the field of forest engineering and, as a result of his expertise, Sessions was honored as the 24th Distinguished Professor of Oregon State University, the first recipient of the Stewart Chair in Forest Engineering, and the first recipient of the Strachan Chair of Forest Operations Management. Currently, he is lead OSU investigator for a $5 million research project on biofuels feedstock and logistics.

Sessions and the eight other award recipients will be recognized for their outstanding contributions to the forestry profession during a ceremony at the 2013 SAF National Convention, to be held October 23–27 in Charleston, South Carolina.