A new editor has been named to lead a social and natural sciences journal published by the University of Nebraska’s Center for Great Plains Studies.

Gary Willson will take over leadership of the journal Great Plains Research on Jan. 1. He will be replacing Robert Diffendal Jr., who led the journal for nine years.

Willson has been an ecologist and research coordinator with the National Park Service’s Great Plains Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit. He also has served as an adjunct associate professor in the University of Nebraska-Lincoln School of National Resources.

Willson has written more than two dozen articles on prairie species and landscapes.