In 1936, he left Nazi Germany for the United States, arriving at UC Berkeley and the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics in 1938.

Wantrup derived criteria for sustainability that included the "Safe Minimum Standard" (the threshold below which loss is catastrophic), irreversibility, and unknown future probability (Option Value).

Career highlights: As early as 1938 he addressed the idea of "permanency of destructive exploitation" in his article "Economic Aspects of Land Conservation."

Wantrup's idea of a safe minimum standard or base level for each flow resource provides an economic rationale for biodiversity conservation which can be applied internationally.

Applications are open to scholars from any social science discipline, and related professional fields such as law and planning, who will make significant contributions to research on natural resource economics broadly defined.