Osvaldo Sala, a Regents and Foundation Professor at Arizona State University and a Distinguished Sustainability Scientist in the Julie Ann Wrigley Global Institute of Sustainability, was elected on August 16 as president of the Ecological Society of America. Elected by ESA members during the society’s annual meeting in Louisville, Kentucky, Sala will be president for a one-year term that ends in 2020. He is the first Hispanic person to serve as president in the organization's century-long history.

As president, Sala will be responsible for chairing “ESA’s governing board that establishes the Society’s vision, goals, and objectives.” The ESA is a diverse group, consisting of almost 10,000 researchers, educators, natural resource managers and students. Sala plans to broaden the scope of the society by reaching out to an even more diverse group of ecologists.

An internationally recognized expert on dryland ecosystems, Sala is an ideal candidate for the job. He has received numerous professional honors and recognitions — including, recently, being named a 2019 American Geophysical Union Fellow — and has been cited more than 40,000 times. In addition to his position at the ESA, Osvaldo Sala is the founder of the Global Drylands Center at ASU. Founded in 2017, the organization hopes to “engage key stakeholders in dryland stewardship and develop solutions for arid ecosystems around the world.”