Dr. Gerardo Ceballos is a professor of ecology and conservation at the National Autonomous University of Mexico. Beginning with research on prairie dogs, he emerged as an international leader in the field of conservation biology. Ceballos led the first scientific group to publish distribution patterns for all five thousand mammals in the world. He also initiated the establishment of the first trust for land conservation in Mexico and is presently leading efforts to create an ecological corridor for jaguars in the country. He was recently named as a finalist for the prestigious Indianapolis Prize for animal conservation.
Paul R. Ehrlich has been a household name since the publication of his 1968 bestseller, The Population Bomb. He is Bing Professor of Population Studies Emeritus and president of the Center for Conservation Biology at Stanford University. Ehrlich is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and a recipient of the Crafoord Prize (an explicit substitute for the Nobel Prize in fields of science where the latter is not given), the Blue Planet Prize and numerous other international honours. He investigates a wide range of topics in population biology, ecology, evolution, and human ecology and evolution. Much of his current efforts are focused on the mechanisms of human cultural evolution and ways of directing that evolution to ameliorate the human predicament.
Dr. Nick Haddad is the William Neal Reynolds Distinguished Professor of Applied Ecology at North Carolina State University. His degrees include a BS in biological sciences from Stanford University and a PhD in ecology from the University of Georgia. Haddad’s research focuses on conservation in fragmented landscapes, and in particular on the role of corridors in restoring ecosystems. He also studies the world’s rarest butterflies and works for their conservation. Haddad is the director of graduate programmes in zoology at NC State and serves as a member of the board of directors of The Nature Conservancy–North Carolina Chapter.
David Mutekanga holds a PhD in environmental management from Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda. He has over 15 years experience working in environmental conservation, governance and development NGOs and networks in East Africa. Mutekanga has conducted field-based research and program work in wildlife conservation with the Uganda Wildlife Society, the East African Wild Life Society and the Wildlife Conservation Society in Tanzania. He has also lectured at Mbarara University of Science and Technology, Uganda. Mutekanga was the executive secretary of the Uganda National Academy of Sciences.
Simone Oigman-Pszczol is a marine biologist who received a PhD from Rio de Janeiro State University, with a sandwich doctorate at Tel Aviv University. She completed two postdoctorates in marine ecology at Rio de Janeiro State University. Oigman-Pszczol has published scientific articles and book chapters; participated in sampling, monitoring and surveying of marine biodiversity; and examined and lectured at various research institutions across the globe. She has extensive expertise in environmental impacts on ecological processes, population ecology, coastal marine benthic communities, ecology of rocky shores, unconsolidated vegetated areas, coral reefs and bioinvasion. Oigman-Pszczol is currently the executive director of the Brazilian Institute of Biodiversity; coordinator of the Sun Coral Project, which is part of UNESCO‘s Man and the Biosphere Programme; and advisor to many projects including the Restinga Alive Project, Coffee Awareness Project, Environmental Footprint Programme and Bio Art Project. She also leads a consulting project for the United Nations to develop protocol to monitor the marine biodiversity of Ilha Grande Bay, Brazil.
Dr. William (Bill) Ripple is a Distinguished Professor of Ecology at Oregon State University, specializing in predator ecology, mammal conservation and the ecological effects of predators. He is a widely published researcher and a prominent international figure in the field of ecology and conservation. Ripple directs the Global Trophic Cascades Program at Oregon State University.
Uri Shanas received a PhD in zoology from Tel Aviv University in 1996. After completing a postdoctoral fellowship at Columbia University, he joined the Department of Biology and Environment at the University of Haifa–Oranim, Israel, where he served as head of department between 2009 and 2013. Prof. Shanas has published over 50 papers in scientific peer-reviewed journals. He was a visiting academic at Massey University, New Zealand, in 2007 and at Portland State University in the 2014/15 academic year. Shanas co-established the Israel Union for Environmental Defense and serves on the governmental Israel Nature and Parks Authority. He leads the expert committee of Israel’s Green Movement Party and has served on various committees including the board of directors of the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel, UNESCO’s Man and the Biosphere Programme and the Long Term Social and Ecological Research Network.
Dr. Jian Wu is a professor of economics at Renmin University of China in Beijing. As one of China’s leading environmental economists, she serves as a board member of the East Asian Association of Environmental and Resource Economics. Recently, Wu completed a sabbatical year as a Fulbright Scholar at Stanford University’s Woods Institute for the Environment and Center for Conservation Biology, where she pursued research regarding the economics and policy analysis of nature and biodiversity conservation. Previously she was a visiting scholar at Harvard University and Australian National University. Wu is currently serving as a team leader of a National Natural Science Foundation of China project: Understanding the Spatially-Explicit Costs and Benefits of Providing Ecosystem Services for Watershed Eco-Compensation Policy Design. She has also worked with the Global Environment Facility, Asian Development Bank, World Bank, China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development, China’s Ministry of Environmental Protection and Ministry of Science and Technology, and the State Taxation Administration of China.
