Emeritus Professor John Terborgh

Duke University

John Terborgh is an Emeritus Professor of Environmental Science and Director of the Center for Tropical Conservation at Duke University, and was formerly a Professor at Princeton University and the University of Maryland. He is a member of the prestigious U.S. National Academy of Sciences, and for the past forty years has been actively involved in tropical ecology and conservation issues. Dr. Terborgh has published numerous articles and books on conservation themes. Since 1973 he has operated a field station in Peru's Manu National Park where he has overseen the research of more than one hundred investigators. In 1992 he was awarded a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Fellowship in recognition of his distinguished work in tropical ecology, and in 1996 he was awarded the National Academy of Sciences Daniel Giraud Elliot medal for his research and his book, Diversity and the Tropical Rainforest. He has served on several boards and advisory committees related to conservation, including the Wildlands Project, Cultural Survival, The Nature Conservancy, The World Wildlife Fund and both the Primate and Ecology Specialist Groups of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. He received his Ph.D. at Harvard University in 1963.