| Citation | Professor Loren Henry Rieseberg, Professor of Botany, Department of Botany, University of British Columbia
Loren Rieseberg has made fundamental contributions to our understanding of speciation mechanisms and the evolution of local adaptation. He has pioneered the application of experimental genomic approaches to studies of microevolutionary processes. He demonstrated that new diploid plant species arise through hybridization, that this mode of speciation results from significant ecological and karyotypic divergence, and that the process occurs with remarkable speed. Rieseberg has also shown that new hybrid gene combinations facilitate the colonization of extreme environments indicating that hybridization provides a mechanism for major ecological and evolutionary transitions requiring simultaneous changes at multiple traits and genes.
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