George Schaller Out Front

George B. Schaller is a field biologist affiliated with the Wildlife Conservation Society in New York as an Emeritus Scientist.  He was born in 1933 in Germany, and moved to United States at the age of 11. He did his undergraduate work at the University of Alaska and Graduate work at the University of Wisconsin.  He has worked for the Wildlife Conservation Society since the early 1960’s. He has spent much time in Asia, Africa, and South America. He pioneered the study of study of rare species such as the mountain gorilla, tiger, lion, jaguar, and the giant panda.  He has also relentlessly campaigned for their conservation. This work has been the basis for his scientific and popular writings including 16 books, including The Year of the Gorilla, The Deer and the Tiger, The Serengeti Lion, The Last Panda, and Tibet Wild. He has inspired and mentored generations of wildlife scientists across the world.  George Schaller has in recent years focused on the wildlife of the Tibetan Plateau, collaborating with local biologists in studies of Tibetan antelope, wild yak, snow leopards, and others.  Field studies have also been conducted in, among others, Laos, Myanmar, Afghanistan, Iran, Mongolia, Tajikistan, Brazil, and Argentina.  His awards include the International Cosmos Prize (Japan), Baogang Environmental Prize (China), and Indianapolis Prize (USA).

Miriam Horn is an author, environmental advocate, journalist and filmmaker. She is currently at work on a biography of wildlife biologist George Schaller, for Penguin Press. Her previous books include the New York Times bestselling Earth: The Sequel: The Race to Reinvent Energy and Stop Global Warming; and Rancher, Farmer, Fisherman, Conservation Heroes of the American Heartland. Both were made into documentary films for the Discovery Channel, with Horn acting as producer. Horn spent fifteen years at the Environmental Defense Fund and six years at the U.S. Forest Service in Colorado, working on habitat conservation, landowner and community partnerships, and public education. Before joining EDF, she was a senior writer at a national newsmagazine and freelanced for many years for The New York Times and other publications. Horn grew up in California, graduated from Harvard University and divides her time between New York City and the Rocky Mountains.  Her 20-year- old daughter Francesca is a junior at Brown University.

Kota Ullas Karanth, originally trained as an engineer at NITK, Surathkal (1971). He then up changed careers to pursue his passion for wildlife, obtaining a Masters degree from the University of Florida, USA (1988) and a Doctorate from Mangalore University, India (1993). Joining Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) in 1988, he built its India Program over the next thirty years. He currently serves as a consultant Director for Science-Asia, for WCS. He is also the Director of Centre for Wildlife Studies, which he founded in 1984. 

Dr. Karanth is an Adjunct Professor at the Universities of Florida and Minnesota, and at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research’s National Centre Biological Sciences, India where he established a world class MSc Program in Wildlife Biology. 

Dr. Karanth has conducted long-term research on the ecology of tigers, other predators and their prey in India and other parts of Asia. His areas of expertise include large carnivore ecology and modeling of animal populations as well as conservation biology and policy. He has published over 150 scientific papers in prestigious journals as well as numerous popular articles. He has authored/edited/co-edited several books: The Way of the Tiger (2001), Monitoring Tigers and their Prey (2002), A view from the Machan (2006), Tiger Tales (2007), Camera traps in Animal Ecology (2009), Science of Saving Tigers (2011), Science and Conservation of Animal Populations (2017) and Methods for Monitoring Tiger and Prey Populations (2017). 

Ullas Karanth serves on the World Conservation Union’s specialist groups on Cats, Elephants, Wild Cattle and Small Carnivores. He has served as a member of the Indian Government’s Forest Advisory Committee, National Tiger Conservation Authority and the Governing Boards of Wildlife Institute of India WWF-India and the Liz Claiborne Foundation, New York. Dr. Karanth has been active in the conservation arena for four decades, advising several conservation advocacy groups in India. 

His work has been extensively featured in world’s media including Nature, New York Times, Time Magazine, National Geographic, BBC, CNN, Discovery and Animal Planet.

In recognition of his contributions wildlife conservation, Dr. Karanth won the Sierra Club’s EarthCare award (2006), World Wildlife Funds’s J. Paul Getty award (2007) and was elected a Fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences (2008). He was conferred the Karnataka Rajya Prashashti in 2011, and the high national civilian Honor Padmashree by the President of India in 2012. 

Dr. Karanth (70) lives in Bangalore, India and is married to Prof. Prathibha Karanth, a speech pathologist. His daughter, Dr. Krithi Karanth, is also a conservation biologist with Centre for Wildlife Studies.