Each year, one especially prominent Fellow is selected for special honors. This year, the Academy’s highest honor, the Fellows’ Medal, will be presented to two exceptional scientists. Dr. James C. Kelley San Francisco State University Dr. Kelley has been one of the most influential scientific leaders in the Bay Area over the last three decades. In his role as the Dean of the College of Science and Engineering at San Francisco State University he has been instrumental in recruiting a broad ranging group of some of the country’s finest scientists to the Bay Area, many of whom are Academy Fellows. He has expanded local scientific opportunities and nurtured scientific excellence in a fundamental and consistent manner. His impact locally and worldwide has been immense. Dr. Kelley has made a tremendous contribution to the scientific discipline of Oceanography. Early in his career, he was a leader in the application and use of computers on shipboard and ashore. With his guidance a group of skilled programmers wrote programs for the acquisition and analysis of oceanographic data which were tested on shore and ported to a computer on board ship. Results of this computerization were so productive it lead to proposals and funding of the Coastal Upwelling Ecosystems Analysis Program of the International Decade of Ocean Exploration as well as more development of specialized computer systems for shipbroad use. Dr. Kelley was elected to the Academy’s Fellowship in 1976. He served as the Academy’s President from 1985 to 1993, and has been a Scientist Trustee for twelve years and continues to serve as Honorary Trustee. Dr. Kelley presently serves on numerous committee and boards including the Board of Governors of the Moss Landing Marine Laboratories, Board of Directors of the Romberg Tiburon Centers, Academic Senate of SFSU, Industrial Waste Review Board of the City and County of San Francisco’s Department of Public Works, Member of the Academy of Creative Endeavors of the USSR, Commission on University Strategic Planning SFSU, and the Executive Committee ERIM International Conferences.   Dr. Jose Sarukhan National Centre for the Study of Biodiversity Dr. Sarukhan is best known for his outstanding contributions to the fields of biodiversity, conservation biology, and ecology. From 1979 until 1987 he was appointed the Director of the Biology Institute of National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), in 1987 he became the Vice-Chancellor for Science at UNAM, and in late 1988, the Board of Governors of UNAM elected him Rector of the National University of Mexico until 1997. Dr. Sarukhan is now the Director of their National Centre for the Study of Biodiversity. He has served as the President of the Botanical Society of Mexico, the Mexican Academy of Sciences, the Association for Tropical Biology, and the Latin American Union of Universities. In 1992, the President of Mexico appointed him the National Coordinator of the Mexican National committee on the Study and Conservation of Biodiversity (CONABIO), a responsibility he continues to have today. He is the founder of the Institute of Ecology at the National University. Dr. Sarukhan has published extensively and has participated in numerous national and international congresses. He was made a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1993, an Honorary Fellow of the Association for Tropical Biology in 1996 and in 1998 he was elected an Honorary Fellow of the Academy.