President – Conservation International
Russell Mittermeier is a prominent
primatologist, herpetologist and wildlife
conservationist with more than 30 years of field
experience in Central and South America, Africa
and Asia. Having served as CI's president since
1989, he is the only active field biologist to
head an international conservation organization.
Mittermeier's fieldwork has been on primates,
protected areas and other conservation issues in
Brazil, Suriname, Madagascar and more than 20
other countries. His areas of expertise include
biological diversity and its value to humanity,
ecosystem conservation, tropical biology and
species conservation. Mittermeier's publications
include 10 books and more than 300 papers and
popular articles on primates, reptiles, tropical
forests and biodiversity.
In addition to his work at CI, Mittermeier has served as Chairman of the IUCN Species Survival Commission's Primate Specialist Group since 1977, been an Adjunct Professor at the State University of New York at Stony Brook since 1978, and President of the Margot Marsh Biodiversity Foundation since 1996. Prior to coming to CI, he was with the World Wildlife Fund-U.S. for 11 years, where his last role was as Vice President for Science
His work has been recognized by a number of institutions and national governments, and he is the recipient of many awards, including the Order of the Golden Ark from His Royal Highness Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands (1995), the Grand Order of the Southern Cross from the President of Brazil (1997), and the Grand Sash and Order of the Yellow Star from the President of Suriname (1998). In 1998, he was also selected as one of Time magazine's "EcoHeroes for the Planet."
