William F. Laurance (born 12 October 1957), also known as Bill Laurance, is Distinguished Research Professor at
James Cook University
James Cook University (JCU) is a public university in North Queensland, Australia. The second oldest university in Queensland, JCU is a teaching and research institution. The university's main campuses are located in the tropical cities of Cairn ...
,
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
and has been elected as a Fellow of the
Australian Academy of Science
The Australian Academy of Science was founded in 1954 by a group of distinguished Australians, including Australian Fellows of the Royal Society of London. The first president was Sir Mark Oliphant. The academy is modelled after the Royal Soci ...
.
He has received an
Australian Laureate Fellowship
The Australian Laureate Fellowship is an Australian professorial research fellowship awarded by the Australian Research Council. Up to 17 fellows are chosen each year for five-year awards.
Kathleen Fitzpatrick and Georgina Sweet fellowships
In 201 ...
from the
Australian Research Council
The Australian Research Council (ARC) is the primary non-medical research funding agency of the Australian Government, distributing more than in grants each year. The Council was established by the ''Australian Research Council Act 2001'', ...
. He held the Prince Bernhard Chair for International Nature Conservation at
Utrecht University
Utrecht University (UU; nl, Universiteit Utrecht, formerly ''Rijksuniversiteit Utrecht'') is a public research university in Utrecht, Netherlands. Established , it is one of the oldest universities in the Netherlands. In 2018, it had an enrollme ...
,
Netherlands
)
, anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau")
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, subdivision_type = Sovereign state
, subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands
, established_title = Before independence
, established_date = Spanish Netherl ...
from 2010 to 2014.
Early life
William F.
Laurance Laurance is a surname or given name. Notable people with the name include:
Surname
* John Laurance (1750–1810), American lawyer and politician from New York
* William F. Laurance (born 1957), American-Australian biology professor
*Bill Laurance ( ...
grew up in the western US, in
Oregon
Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...
and
Idaho
Idaho ( ) is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. To the north, it shares a small portion of the Canada–United States border with the province of British Columbia. It borders the states of Montana and Wyom ...
.
He initially aspired to direct his own zoo, but later turned to ecology and conservation biology.
Since he was interested in nature conservation, he decided in the early 1980s to study imperiled
tropical forests
Tropical forests (a.k.a. jungle) are forested landscapes in tropical regions: ''i.e.'' land areas approximately bounded by the tropic of Cancer and Capricorn, but possibly affected by other factors such as prevailing winds.
Some tropical fores ...
for his PhD. During this time, he also became involved in some heated conservation issues
in Australia and elsewhere.
Professional career
Laurance has published eight books and over 700 scientific and popular articles.
These include two edited volumes,
as well as analyses of conservation-policy challenges in the Brazilian Amazon,
Gabon,
Southeast Asia,
and New Guinea.
He has also synthesized changing trends,
new initiatives,
[REDD
Redd is a Turkish rock band established in 1996 by tenor opera singer Doğan Duru and guitarist Berke Hatipoğlu under the name ''Ten''. They used to play at bars until they set up their own studio in 2004. Their first album, titled ''"50/50"'' ...]
than dead. BioScience 58:677."> and major debates
in tropical conservation science and policy.
He is among the most highly cited scientists globally in the fields of
.
His works have been cited more than 83,000 times, and his Hirsch's h index of 145
(as per December 2021) is the highest of any environmental scientist or ecologist in Australia and ranked number 6 globally.
.
in the Amazon Basin, he introduced concepts, including "biomass collapse", the "hyperdynamism hypothesis", the "landscape-divergence hypothesis", the large spatial scale of some edge effects,
responses to fragmentation, and the importance of synergisms between fragmentation and other environmental insults.