CONSULTING CONSERVATION SCIENTISTS
Dr. Russ Mittermeier
Chief Conservation Officer, Global Wildlife Conservation
Chair, IUCN Primate Specialist Group
Winner of 2018 Indianapolis Prize
Ariadne Angulo, PhD,
Co-Chair, IUCN SSC Amphibian Specialist Group
Interim Executive Director, Amphibian Survival Alliance
Professor Phil Bishop
Co-Chair IUCN SSC Amphibian Specialist Group
Chief Scientist Amphibian Survival Alliance
Co-Founder Jane Goodall Institute New Zealand
Craig Stanford
Chair, IUCN SSC Tortoises and Turtles Specialist Group
Professor of Biological Sciences and Anthropology; University of Southern California
Pedro Cardoso
Curator, Finnish Museum of Natural History LUOMUS
Docent in Ecology, University of Helsinki
Chair, IUCN SSC Spider & Scorpion Specialist Group
Sarina Jepsen
Director of Endangered Species and Aquatic Programs, The Xerces Society
Co-Chair, IUCN Bumblebee Specialist Group
Prof. Paul Williams
Co-Chair, IUCN Bumblebee Specialist Group
Researcher, Natural History Museum, London
Sara Oldfield OBE (Order of the British Empire)
Secretary General, Botanic Gardens Conservation International
Co-Chair, IUCN SSC Global Trees Specialist Group
Dr. Robin Moore
Conservation Office, Amphibian Survival Alliance
Vice President Communications and Marketing, Re:wild
Dr. Jim Henrich
Curator of Living Collections
Los Angeles Arboretum
Professor Adrian Newton
Chair, IUCN SSC Global Trees Specialist Group
School of Applied Sciences
Bournemouth University, UK
Tigga Kingston, PhD
Co-Chair, IUCN Species Survival Commission
Bat Specialist Group
Assoc. Professor, Texas Tech University
Rodrigo Medellin, PhD
Co-Chair, IUCN SSC Bat Specialist Group
Adjunt Professor, Columbia University
Associate Researcher, American Museum of Natural History
Chris Jenkins, PhD
Chair, IUCN SSC Viper Specialist Group
CEO, Orianne Society
Gregory M. Mueller, Ph.D.
Chief Scientist & Negaunee Foundation Vice President of Science
Chicago Botanic Garden
Chair, IUCN SSC Mushroom, Bracket and Puffball Specialist Group
IUCN SSC Regional Vice-Chair for North America and the Caribbean
Prof. Dr. Christoph Scheidegger
Co-Chair, IUCN SSC Lichen Specialist Group
Biodiversity and Conservation Biology
Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research, WSL
Dr. Viola Clausnitzer
Senckenberg Museum of Natural History
Chair, IUCN SSC Dragonfly Specialist Group
ADVISORY GROUP
Dr. Russ Mittermeier is Global Wildlife Conservation’s Chief Conservation Officer. In this role, he leverages his extensive experience and network to protect wildlife and wildlands—enormous reservoirs of biodiversity and key components in preventing runaway climate change— particularly in biodiversity hotspots and critical wilderness areas. Mittermeier came to GWC from Conservation International, where he served as president from 1989 until 2014, and most recently as executive vice chair.
Named a “Hero for the Planet” by TIME magazine, Mittermeier is regarded as a world leader in the field of biodiversity and tropical forest conservation. Trained as a primatologist and herpetologist, he has traveled widely in 169 countries on seven continents, and has conducted field work in more than 30, focusing particularly on Amazonia (especially Brazil and Suriname), the Atlantic Forest region of Brazil, and Madagascar.
Since 1977, Mittermeier has served as chairman of the IUCN Species Survival Commission Primate Specialist Group, and he has been a member of the Steering Committee of the Species Survival Commission since 1982. Prior to working for Conservation International, he spent 11 years at World Wildlife Fund-U.S. (1978−1989), starting as director of its Primate Program and ending up as vice president for Science. He also served as an IUCN regional councilor for the period between 2004 and 2012, was elected as one of IUCN’s four vice presidents between 2009 and 2012, and then was elected a lifetime Honorary IUCN Member in 2012. In addition, he has been an adjunct professor at the State University of New York at Stony Brook since 1978 (and received an Honorary Doctorate there in 2007), a research associate at the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard University for more than two decades, and president of the Margot Marsh Biodiversity Foundation since 1996.
Mittermeier has been influential in the Atlantic Forest region of Brazil, where he has worked since 1971, and in Madagascar, where he first began work in 1984. Another focus has been South America’s Guiana Shield region, the most pristine rain forest area left on Earth, where he began working in 1975. His vision for conservation in the Guianas is to conserve more than 100 million hectares of pristine forest from Suriname, Guyana, French Guiana, the northernmost part of Brazilian Amazonia, and Venezuela. Having worked in the region for more than 45 years, he has been able to win allies in many sectors, from heads-of-state to indigenous leaders, and has won a place for biodiversity conservation in government and community decision-making.
Mittermeier has been particularly interested in the discovery and description of species new to science. He has described a total of 18 new species (three turtles, six lemurs, two tarsiers, and seven monkeys) and has eight species named in his honor (three frogs, a lizard, two lemurs, a saki monkey, and an ant). In addition, Mittermeier has placed considerable emphasis on publishing. His output now includes 35 books and more than 650 scientific and popular articles.
Mittermeier has had a lifelong interest in tribal peoples, and has worked with many different communities, from the Trio of southern Suriname and the Saramaccaner, Matawai, and Aucaner Maroons of central Suriname to the Kayapó of the Brazilian Amazon, and has engaged them in a variety of different conservation endeavors. He has also published on the strong connections between biodiversity and human cultural diversity, demonstrating how strongly the highest priority areas for each overlap.
Brian Greene is Professor of Physics and Mathematics at Columbia University and is widely recognized for a number of groundbreaking discoveries in mathematical physics and superstring theory, including the co-discoveries of mirror symmetry and topology change. His first book for general audiences, The Elegant Universe, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, and has sold more than a million copies worldwide. His more recent books, The Fabric of the Cosmos and The Hidden Reality, were both New York Times bestsellers, and inspired the Washington Post to call him “the single best explainer of abstruse concepts in the world today.” His futuristic fable, Icarus at the Edge of Time, has been adapted into a live stage presentation with an original symphonic score by Philip Glass, and has been performed nearly 50 times worldwide.
Professor Greene has made frequent media appearances on programs such as Charlie Rose and The Late Show, and has hosted two NOVA specials, based on The Elegant Universe and The Fabric of the Cosmos, which were nominated for four Emmy Awards and won a George Foster Peabody Award. He has also had cameo appearances in Hollywood films such as Maze, Frequency, and the Last Mimzy, and played himself in an episode of theThe Big Bang Theory.
Professor Greene is the director of Columbia’s Center for Theoretical Physics, and with producer Tracy Day he is co-founder of the World Science Festival.
Shahid Naeem is Professor of Ecology in the Dept. of Ecology, Evolution, and Environmental Biology and Director of the Earth Institute Center for Environmental Sustainability at Columbia University. He obtained his PhD from the University of California at Berkeley, was a postdoctoral fellow at Imperial College of London, the University of Copenhagen, and University of Michigan. He has served on the faculty of the University of Minnesota, the University of Washington, and currently serves on the Faculty of Arts and Sciences and the Earth Institute at Columbia University. Recipient of the Ecological Society of America’s Buell and Mercer Awards and the Lenfest Distinguished Faculty award at Columbia University, he is also a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and an Aldo Leopold Leadership fellow. Considered among the “World’s Most Influential Scientific Minds” in environmental and ecological science by Thompson Reuters in 2016, his teaching, research, and publications focus on the importance of biodiversity in the functioning of ecosystems and the services they provide humanity.
Isabella Rossellini grew up in Paris and Rome. When she was 19, she moved to New York City, working as a translator and journalist for RAI-Italian Television. She began a modeling career at the relatively advanced age of 28, appearing on numerous covers of magazine such as Vogue, Elle, Harper’s Bazaar and Vanity Fair. An enduring style icon, Ms. Rossellini began a 14-year run in 1982 as the exclusive spokesperson for Lancome. When she turned 40 years old, an age considered too advanced to represent beauty industry, her contract was not renewed. Isabella launched her own cosmetics brand Manifesto but in 2016 Lancome hired her again as a spokesperson with the specific intent to promote inclusiveness and fight against “ageism.”
Ms. Rossellini made her cinematic debut as an actress in 1979 in the Taviani brothers’ film Il Prato (The Meadow) and has appeared in numerous other films, including the American features Blue Velvet, White Nights, Rodger Dodger, Cousins, Death Becomes Her, Fearless, Big Night, Joy. She worked with directors from many different directors like Robert Zemeckis , David O. Russell, David Lynch, Robert Wilson, Taylor Hackford, Marjane Satrapi, and Guy Maddin. She is also a successful television actress and filmmaker, with a keen interest in animals and wildlife conservation. Her award-winning series of shorts, Green Porno, Seduce Me and Mammas offers comical and scientifically insightful studies of animal behaviors. She recently toured in 50 different cities with a monologue based on her shorts written with Academy Award winner Jean Claude Carriere.
Isabella is completing her master degree on Animal behavior and Conservation at Hunter College in NY and obtaining a PhD honors causa from the Science faculty at UQAM (University of Quebec at Montreal). Her most recent work on TV includes Master of Photography for European channel SKY ARTS and the American series SHUT EYE for the platform HULU which will be released in December 2016 .
Ms. Rossellini’s philanthropic interests embrace preservation of her family’s extraordinary cinematic heritage, including the films directed by her father, Roberto Rossellini, and those featuring her mother, Ingrid Bergman. She also runs an organic farm in Brookhaven in association with the Peconic Land Trust and the Post Morrow Foundation. Ms. Rossellini is a mother of two and resides in Bellport, Long Island.
Alejandro Morales is the head veterinarian at ARCAS Peten in Guatemala, and also is the lead administrative assisant of the Rescue Center, which is accredited by the Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries as having met the highest standard in humane animal care. Alejandro’s work focuses primarily on animal health and welfare. Since 1990, ARCAS has rescued between 300 to 600 endangered species per year of more than 40 different species. Alejandro is a very enthusiastic doctor who and helps in is networking with US universities to expand the wildlife veterinary training program. ARCAS Peten was recently featured in a BBC documentary called Jungle Animal Hospital.