John Whittle Terborgh (born April 16, 1936) is a

James B. Duke Professor At Duke University, the title of James B. Duke Professor is given to a small number of the faculty with extraordinary records of achievement. At some universities, titles like "distinguished professor", "institute professor", or " regents professo ...

of Environmental Science at

Duke University Duke University is a private research university in Durham, North Carolina. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco and electric power industrialist James ...

and Co-Director of the Center for Tropical Conservation. He is a member of the

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Nati ...

, and for the past thirty-five years, has been actively involved in tropical ecology and conservation issues. An authority on

avian Avian may refer to: *Birds or Aves, winged animals *Avian (given name) (russian: Авиа́н, link=no), a male forename Aviation *Avro Avian, a series of light aircraft made by Avro in the 1920s and 1930s *Avian Limited, a hang glider manufacture ...

and

mammal Mammals () are a group of vertebrate animals constituting the class Mammalia (), characterized by the presence of mammary glands which in females produce milk for feeding (nursing) their young, a neocortex (a region of the brain), fur or ...

ian ecology in Neotropical forests, Terborgh has published numerous articles and books on conservation themes. Since 1973, he has operated the

Cocha Cashu Biological Station Cocha Cashu Biological Station (Estación Biológica Cocha Cashu or EBCC) is a tropical biological research station located at 11° 54'S and 71° 22'W in Manú National Park, Peru. It was established in 1969-70, predating the founding of its contain ...

, a tropical ecology research station in Manú National Park, Peru. Raised in Arlington, Virginia, Terborgh graduated from Harvard College in 1958 and received his PhD in

plant physiology Plant physiology is a subdiscipline of botany concerned with the functioning, or physiology, of plants. Closely related fields include plant morphology (structure of plants), plant ecology (interactions with the environment), phytochemistry (bi ...

from Harvard University in 1963. He served on the faculty of the University of Maryland and then, for 18 years, on the faculty of Princeton University. In 1989, Terborgh moved to

, where he joined the faculty of the (now) Nicholas School of the Environment and founded the Duke University Center for Tropical Conservation. In June 1992, Terborgh was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship in recognition of his distinguished work in tropical ecology, and in April 1996 he was awarded the

Daniel Giraud Elliot Medal The Daniel Giraud Elliot Medal is awarded by the U.S. United States National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Sciences "for meritorious work in zoology or paleontology study published in a three- to five-year period." Named after Daniel Gir ...

from The National Academy of Sciences for his research, and for his book In 2005, he was elected Honorary Fellow of the

Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation Association may refer to: *Club (organization), an association of two or more people united by a common interest or goal *Trade association, an organization founded and funded by businesses that operate in a specific industry *Voluntary associatio ...

during the organization's annual meeting held in Uberlândia, Brazil. He has served on several boards and advisory committees related to conservation, including the

Wildlands Project The Wildlands Network (formerly known as “Wildlands Project") was created in 1991 to stem the tide of species extinctions that was being recorded across North America. Evidence that such extinctions were often exacerbated by a lack of habitat c ...

Cultural Survival Cultural Survival (founded 1972) is a nonprofit group based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, which is dedicated to defending the human rights of indigenous peoples. History Cultural Survival was founded by anthropologist David Maybur ...

, The Nature Conservancy, The World Wildlife Fund and both the Primate and Ecology Specialist Groups of the International Union for Conservation of Nature. Terborgh and his work were among several featured in the documentary film, ''

The Serengeti Rules ''The Serengeti Rules'' is a 2018 American documentary film directed by Nicolas Brown, and based on the book by Sean B. Carroll. The film explores the discoveries of five pioneering scientists— Tony Sinclair, Mary E. Power, Bob Paine, John Ter ...

'', which was released in 2018.

Publications

Terborgh is the author of hundreds of scientific papers and popular essays, and author or editor of several books: * * * * *

References

External links

*
Duke University Center for Tropical ConservationNew York Review of Books: John Terborgh
{{DEFAULTSORT:Terborgh, John Conservation biologists 21st-century American biologists Harvard College alumni MacArthur Fellows Living people Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences 1936 births Fellows of the Ecological Society of America