Area of Study: Evolutionary Biology

Human Biology changed my life - twice. Through the program, I had the opportunity to visit Gombe Stream Research Center to study chimpanzees. After 6 months at Gombe, I decided that medicine wasn't all that interesting and became a professional biologist. Over the next 30 years, I pursued an academic career in teaching and research. In 2002, I returned to Gombe to revisit the forest that had meant so much to me. I was so struck by the loss of forest surrounding Gombe (due to human population expansion) and its effect on Gombe's chimpanzees that I decided to take action.

My second career has been to try to influence how conservation programs are organized in developing countries. I founded Conservation through Poverty Alleviation, International (www.cpali.org) and have been developing livelihoods for subsistence farmers displaced from the Makira Protected Area. Human Biology gave me a uniquely broad and integrative approach to how I think about biological systems and shaped my interest in the developing world.