Stuart Pimm

Dr. Stuart Pimm, Professor of Conservation at Duke University, is an internationally recognized global leader in studying biodiversity, especially present-day extinctions and what the world can do to prevent them. He holds a secondary appointment as an Extraordinary Professor at the University of Pretoria, South Africa. His message that we can all make a difference in our planet’s survival inspires a broad audience.

Pimm’s commitment to the science-policy interface has led to his regular testimony to both House and Senate Committees of the U.S. Congress. He frequently engages policymakers on environmental issues. He is also asked to advise international governments on biodiversity issues and the management of national parks, especially in Africa. Pimm has also worked in the forests of Colombia, Ecuador, and Brazil. In the last decade, he has been active in training Chinese conservation professionals. Pimm directs Saving Nature (www.savingnature.org) a non-profit that uses donations for carbon emissions offsets to fund conservation groups in areas of exceptional tropical biodiversity to restore their degraded lands.

Pimm is the author of nearly 400 scientific papers and five books, including the highly acclaimed assessment of the human impact on the planet: The World According to Pimm: a Scientist Audits the Earth.

Pimm was awarded the 2019 International Cosmos Prize, one of the most prestigious honors presented in the environmental field. It recognizes ground-breaking research on endangered species and his work at Saving Nature to promote practical approaches to reverse species’ declines by protecting and restoring their shrinking habitats. His international honors also include the Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement (2010) and the Dr A.H. Heineken Prize for Environmental Sciences from the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (2006).

Pimm was born in Derbyshire, UK, received his BSc degree from Oxford University in 1971 and his PhD from New Mexico State University in 1974.