John Robinson

After directing the conservation programs of the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) for 30 years, John G. Robinson recently became the Joan L. Tweedy Chair in Conservation Strategy at WCS. After receiving a doctorate in zoology in 1977 from the University of North Carolina, and postdoctoral studies at the Smithsonian Institution, he joined in 1980 the University of Florida, where he established the Program for Studies in Tropical Conservation, a graduate program providing training to students from tropical countries. He joined the WCS in 1990. He is a Past President of the Society for Conservation Biology and served as Chair of the Board of The Christensen Fund and Foundations of Success. In 2003, he received the Royal Order of the Golden Ark by King Bernhard of the Netherlands, in recognition of lifetime achievement and service to conservation, and in 2016, the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Zoological Society of London, England. He is a Fellow of Churchill College, Cambridge. He has served as IUCN's Councillor for North America and the Caribbean, and Vice President for the Council since 2012.