Chuck Bargeron

Chuck is the Director of the Center for Invasive Species & Ecosystem Health and has a Public Service Faculty appointment in the Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources at the University of Georgia. Chuck has been with the University of Georgia for 27 years where his work focuses on invasive species and information technology. He has a B.S. and M.S in Computer Science. Websites he designed have been featured twice in Science Magazine, received regional awards for content and design, and received over 3 billion hits in the last twenty years. Chuck developed the infrastructure behind Bugwood Images, which runs the ForestryImages.org and Invasive.org websites and archives over 300,000 images. Recently, Chuck has focused on mapping invasive species and tools for Early Detection and Rapid Response using EDDMapS and smartphone applications. EDDMapS includes over 7.5 million records from 40,000 organizations, professionals, and volunteers. He has led the development of 73 smartphone applications, including the first apps for the U.S. Forest Service and National Park Service.

Since 2010, Chuck has been awarded more than $4.2 million in grants and cooperative agreements funding to support his work.

Chuck was the Florida Exotic Pest Plant Council Advocate of the Year in 2008 and received the Mid-Atlantic Exotic Pest Plant Council Award in 2009. In 2012, as part of the Everglades Cooperative Invasive Species Management Area, he received the U.S. Department of Interior – Partners in Conservation Award. He has served as President of the National Association of Exotic Pest Plant Councils, the North American Invasive Species Network, and the North American Invasive Species Management Association. He was appointed to the Theodore Roosevelt Genius Prize Advisory Council in 2021 and serves as Chair of the Invasive Species board. He was initially appointed to the National Invasive Species Advisory Council in 2013, elected as Chair in 2017, and reappointed in 2022.

Chuck has been an invited speaker at over 300 regional and national conferences and co-authored over 67 journal articles and outreach publications.

Still the computer geek, he is always looking for the latest and greatest technology gadgets and has his first Apple Macintosh computer from 1985.