Anthony J. (Tony) Gaston
Dr. Tony Gaston, born in Croydon, UK, has been studying natural history since 1957, being part of the Whitgift School Selborne Society and a trainee bird bander (ringer) from the age of 13. His career included working for the RSPB in Scotland (Loch Garten) and Wales (Gwenffwrd), collecting hominoid fossils for Yale Peabody Museum in Egypt, Iran, India and Pakistan, observing birds in the central Sahara, surveying wildlife, especially pheasants, in the Western Himalayas, and studying rainforest birds in the Western Ghats of India. In 1978-1980, he initiated the Himachal Wildlife Project in the state of Himachal Pradesh. This project was the first large-scale, systematic survey of wildlife in that State and was an important stimulus to the creation of the Great Himalayan National Park, now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. He has returned to India many times to carry out contracts with FAO, the World Bank and the Sardar Sarovar Independent Review.
From 1979-2014 he was a Research Scientist with Environment Canada, studying marine birds in Nunavut and Haida Gwaii, and the impact of introduced species on the terrestrial ecology of Haida Gwaii. His major area of research was the impact of climate change in Arctic Canada. He was one of the founders (in 1990) of the Laskeek Bay Conservation Society, an environmental organization based in Daajing Giids, Haida Gwaii (BC) specializing in developing citizen science. He continues to serve as their Director of Research.
Tony is the author of more than 200 scientific papers and four books, including the account of the Alcidae in the Oxford University Press series Bird Families of the World, and monographs on the Ancient Murrelet and the Thick-billed Murre. Recently, he was co-author on the Birds chapter for the CAFF Arctic Biodiversity Assessment and co-author of Birds of Nunavut.
Tony received the Doris Huestis Speirs Award for Outstanding Contributions to Canadian Ornithology (2007) and the Jamie Smith Mentoring Award (2013), both from the Society of Canadian Ornithologists, and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Pacific Seabird Group (2014).
Being ourselves 