Science Leader
Principal Investigator for “Operation RubyThroat: The Hummingbird Project” is Bill Hilton Jr., a life-long educator-naturalist who is executive director of Hilton Pond Center for Piedmont Natural History. Bill was twice named South Carolina Science Teacher of the Year and was honored as the state's Outstanding Biology Teacher. The December 2008 issue of Discover magazine cited him as one of the top ten amateur scientists in America and one of the nation's "50 Best Brains in Science." Bill has been studying hummingbirds for 25 years and has captured, banded, and safely released more than 6,000 Ruby-throated Hummingbirds. He is the only scientist conducting systematic research on RTHU within their winter range in Central America, where he is assisted by Costa Rican naturalist Ernesto Carman Jr.
Bill Hilton Jr. describes himself as an "educator-naturalist" who teaches others about the world of nature. Bill has always been interested in plants and animals, ever since he was a small boy who wandered the woods around Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania USA and kept snakes in his basement. (His most memorable childhood nature
experience came when a praying mantis egg case hatched out in his bedroom in midwinter and hundreds of baby mantids climbed the walls!)
Early on Bill decided he wanted to teach biology--which he eventually did, choosing a career as a high school and college biology instructor so he could excite new generations of young people about
science learning. Today Bill is executive director of Hilton Pond Center for Piedmont Natural History, a nature center in York, South Carolina USA, where he does scientific research on birds--especially
hummingbirds--and leads field trips for students of all ages. He also writes for magazines and publishes "This Week at Hilton Pond," an on-going series of photo essays about interesting natural happenings in his own "backyard." In all these ways Bill stays involved as a researcher and educator and shares his knowledge of science with anyone who wants to learn.