Christopher Rota and TJ Benson win McAtee/Burger Awards

The Wildlife Society is proud to honor two hard-working associate editors with the 2025 McAtee/Burger Awards.

Christopher Rota has won the award for the Journal of Wildlife Management, and TJ Benson has won for the Wildlife Society Bulletin.

The W.L. McAtee and G.V. Burger Award for Outstanding Service as an Associate Editor recognizes the outstanding work of an associate editor for each of the two premier peer-reviewed journals of The Wildlife Society: Journal of Wildlife Management and Wildlife Society Bulletin. W.L. McAtee was the founding editor of the Journal of Wildlife Management, while G.V. Burger was the Wildlife Society Bulletin’s first editor.

Jacqueline Frair, the editor-in-chief of the Journal of Wildlife Management, said that Rota was selected for going the “extra mile” in providing professional, on-time assessments and helping authors improve their manuscripts with the help of review comments. “His statistical expertise and ability to communicate sophisticated technical issues in a straightforward manner [are] a tremendous asset[s] for authors and for me as well as the ultimate arbiter of what papers get to print,” she said.

Rota, an associate professor of wildlife fisheries resources at West Virginia University, said he was “totally surprised and very honored” when he learned he won the award.

“I strive to give timely, thorough reviews that are honest and respectful. I put a lot of effort into reviews and try to maintain a high standard for all papers,” Rota said. “I try to highlight common themes of all reviews and give authors a clear understanding of revisions necessary for a paper to get accepted.”

Bret Collier, the editor-in-chief of the Wildlife Society Bulletin (WSB), said that Benson has done “outstanding” work at the journal. “TJ has been a real asset to WSB—thoughtful, expressive and invested in supporting authors and ensuring the science they present is sound and effectively translated for the suite of WSB readers.”

Benson, a research scientist at the University of Illinois, was “incredibly honored” as well, especially since he believes associate editors are sometimes underappreciated.

“My goals as a scientist are to produce and communicate high-quality and relevant work and to help others do the same,” Benson said. “Supporting the journals of our scientific societies is particularly important, and it’s been a privilege to spend more than 10 years as an [associate editor] with the Wildlife Society Bulletin handling manuscripts on a broad range of taxa and questions.”