The award was given by the U.S. Chapter of the International Association of Landscape Ecology for best paper published in 1995 in the discipline of landscape ecology to With and her former colleague, Thomas O. Crist, who is now an assistant professor in the Department of Zoology, Miami University, Ohio.
The paper, "Critical Thresholds in Species' Responses to Landscape Structure," has been published in the journal, Ecology, and demonstrated that small changes in habitat loss can abruptly fragment the landscape thus producing a threshold effect that leads to the subdivision and isolation of animal populations. Research for the paper used a combination of computer simulation modeling, theoretical landscape models, and experimental work in a grassland system to test predictions of model results.
With received the award after completing her fellowship in Life Sciences and Environmental Technologies while working closely with Bob Gardner, Monica Turner and Bob O'Neill in ESD.
With obtained her bachelor's degree in zoology at San Francisco State University, and her master's degree and doctorate in biology from Northern Arizona University and Colorado State University, respectively.
With lives in Bowling Green, Ohio, where she is an assistant professor of conservation biology/landscape ecology in the Department of Biological Sciences at Bowling Green State University.
ORNL, one of DOE's multiprogram national research and development facilities, is managed by Lockheed Martin Energy Research Corporation.