The Parker/Gentry Award, established in 1996 and presented annually by the Field Museum of Natural History, honors an outstanding individual, team or organization in the field of conservation biology whose efforts have had a significant impact on preserving the world's natural heritage and whose actions and approach can serve as a model to others. The award is designed to highlight work that could benefit from wider publicity and fuller dissemination of scientific results.
The award bears the names of the late Theodore A. Parker III[1] and Alwyn Howard Gentry,[1] outstanding conservation biologists, who worked closely with several Field Museum curators, especially through the Rapid Assessment Program (RAP) launched by Conservation International.
Parker, an ornithologist, and Gentry, a botanist, were killed August 3, 1993 when their light plane crashed into a mountainside as they were making a treetop survey of an Ecuadorian cloud forest.