ITHACA, N.Y. -- Simon A. Levin, a Cornell University professor of ecology and systematics from 1965 to 1992 and now an adjunct professor at Cornell, is the winner of the 2005 Kyoto Prize in Basic Sciences, a prestigious award of international recognition. Levin is also now the George M. Moffett Professor of Biology and director of the Center for Biocomplexity at Princeton University.

The prize, sponsored by the Inamori Foundation, is awarded annually to "individuals and groups worldwide who have contributed significantly to mankind's betterment." Considered among the world's leading awards for lifetime achievement, the Kyoto Prize recognizes lifelong contributions to advanced technology, basic sciences and arts and philosophy.

Levin will receive a diploma, a gold medal and $460,000 during a week of ceremonies, beginning Nov. 10 in Kyoto, Japan. In addition, Levin and the two other laureates in different categories will participate in the fifth annual Kyoto Laureate Symposium in San Diego in early 2006.

Levin was cited for "establishing the field of 'spatial ecology' and expanding scientific understanding of the biosphere as a 'complex adaptive system.' Professor Levin's use of mathematical models to understand the complex patterns of the biosphere has made a substantial impact on environmental sciences and led to new methods of environmental protection." His work formed the basis of many current ecological models for marine and terrestrial ecosystems, the announcement said. "His work has shown that ecosystems and the biosphere are not super-organisms, as previously suggested, but complex adaptive systems with apparent regularity emerging from self-organization processes. Among his primary concerns are the staggering losses in biodiversity worldwide that have resulted in the recent past from the mass production, consumption and waste disposal practices of human populations."

While at Cornell, Levin was chairman of the Section of Ecology and Systematics (now the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology), director of the Ecosystems Research Center for eight years, director of the Center for Environmental Research for four years and director of the Program on Theoretical and Computational Biology for three years. After 28 years at Cornell, Simon moved to Princeton.

The recipient of the 2004 Dr. A.H. Heineken Prize for Environmental Sciences as well as the Akira Okubo Lifetime Achievement Award, Levin earned his B.A. at Johns Hopkins University in 1961 and his Ph.D. at the University of Maryland in 1964, both in mathematics.