Professor Cagan Sekercioglu

Stanford University

Cagan Sekercioglu studied biology and anthropology at Harvard University after being inspired by Stephen Jay Gould, Ernst Mayr, and Edward O. Wilson. A leading Turkish scientist, Cagan received his PhD in ecology and evolution from Stanford University and is a senior research scientist at Stanford. His major projects include include the Costa Rican bird ecology and population dynamics project he started in 1999 and the world bird ecology database he initiated in 2000. He has done field work on all continents in places like Alaska, Angola, Australia, Ethiopia, Malaysia, and Uganda. His research covers the entire spectrum of biodiversity, from ethnobotany surveys with village medicine women to mark-recapture analyses of bird populations to camera trap surveys of bears to building Turkey's first man-made bird nesting island. His conservation efforts have been rewarded with Ramsar recognition, the European Destination of Excellence ecotourism award, and the Whitley Gold award for grassroots conservation.