UMSL biologist Patricia Parker (center), who was recently presented the 2014 Saint Louis Zoo Conservation Award, poses with Jeffrey P. Bonner (left), Saint Louis Zoo Dana Brown President & CEO, and Eric Miller, DVM, senior vice president and director of Zoological Operations at the Saint Louis Zoo. (Photo courtesy of Bentley Studio)

Patricia Parker has earned the 2014 Saint Louis Zoo Conservation Award.

Parker, chair of the Department of Biology at the University of Missouri–St. Louis and the E. Desmond Lee Professor in Zoological Studies, was presented the award on Nov. 12 at the 23rd annual Marlin Perkins Society Celebration.

A video of Parker’s career highlights was shown during the award’s ceremony. Click here to view the video.

In addition to her work at UMSL, Parker is also a senior scientist at the zoo and director of the zoo’s WildCare Institute Center for Avian Health in the Galápagos Islands.

Under Parker’s leadership the center staff has developed training courses for Ecuadorian personnel, held veterinary workshops, conducted major biomedical surveys and documented the increasing threat to endemic bird health from diseases associated with the growing poultry industry in the islands. Parker and her team have discovered new disease agents previously undescribed.

Over the past decade, Parker and her research team have written more than 85 scientific papers. More than 30 UMSL graduate degrees have been awarded to students who have conducted research on the islands under Parker, a mentor to some of the field’s best and brightest graduate students from across the globe.