Hightower receives NCSU Libraries Faculty Award
Dr. Joseph E. Hightower, professor of applied ecology and assistant leader of the NC Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit, is a 2013 recipient of the NCSU Libraries Faculty Award.
The annual award, established in commemoration of the library’s centennial year in 1989, recognizes North Carolina State University faculty members who have “contributed consistently and notably to the accomplishment of the Libraries’ mission, vision, and strategic initiatives.”
Also honored with a 2013 award was Dr. Suzanne Kennedy-Stoskopf, research professor in the Department of Clinical Sciences in the NC State University College of Veterinary Medicine.
Hightower has served on the University Library Committee and as departmental representative to the library for many years. He established an endowment to support library collections and has championed innovative teaching initiatives that complement the libraries’ emerging role in the management and dissemination of digital information.
Hightower pioneered distance education in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and regularly teaches online classes. He recently developed and taught an innovative graduate course called “Scientific Communication in a Digital World” that engaged library staff with graduate students to discuss the developing role of academic libraries in digital information management and publishing.
Hightower is a CALS alumnus who earned his 1978 bachelor’s degree from the Department of Zoology. He received his 1981 master’s degree and 1984 Ph.D. in fisheries at the University of Georgia.
The NC Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit is part of the Cooperative Research Units Program, which was established to facilitate cooperation among the U.S. Department of the Interior, universities, state fish and wildlife agencies and private organizations by conducting programs of research and education related to fish and wildlife resource management. The North Carolina unit is jointly sponsored by the Department of the Interior’s U.S. Geological Survey, the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission, N.C. State University and the Wildlife Management Institute.
The North Carolina unit is in the Department of Applied Ecology.
