John Whittle Terborgh

John Terborgh is James B. Duke Professor Emeritus in the Nicholas School of the Environment, Duke University and Director of the Duke University Center for Tropical Conservation. His specialty is tropical ecology with an emphasis on plant-animal interactions and trophic cascades. He has conducted research in Latin America, the Caribbean, Africa, Asia, Madagascar and New Guinea, but his main focus has been the Peruvian Amazon where he managed a research station in the Manu National Park from 1973 to 2011.

         Professor Terborgh has published more than 250 research papers, 8 books and numerous popular articles. He has served on the boards of many national and international conservation organizations. In 1999 he founded ParksWatch, an organization dedicated to monitoring and evaluating the status of parks and other protected areas in 7 Latin American countries. He has retired from teaching but remains active in research.