"Primatologist" Russell Mittermeier Hand Signed Business Card

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"Primatologist" Russell Mittermeier Hand Signed Business Card
ES-8745E
Russell Alan Mittermeier
(born November 8, 1949) is a
primatologist
and
herpetologist
. He has written several books for both popular and scientist audiences, and has authored more than 300
scientific papers
. Russell A. Mittermeier is Chief Conservation Officer of Global Wildlife Conservation. He served as President of Conservation International from 1989 to 2014, then Executive Vice-Chair from 2014 to 2017. He specialises in the fields of primatology, herpetology, biodiversity and conservation of tropical forests. He has undertaken research in more than 30 countries, including Amazonia (particularly
Brazil
and
Suriname
) and
Madagascar
. Since 1977, Mittermeier has served as Chairman of the
IUCN-World Conservation Union
Species Survival Commission Primate Specialist Group, and he has been a member of the Steering Committee of the Species Survival Commission since 1982. Before working for Conservation International, he spent 11 years at the
World Wildlife Fund
in the United States, starting as Director of their Primate Program and ending up as Vice-President for Science. He also served as an IUCN-World Conservation Union Regional Councillor for the period 2004–2012, was elected as one of IUCN-World Conservation Union's four Vice-Presidents for the period 2009–2012, and then was elected a lifetime Honorary IUCN-World Conservation Union Member in 2012. He also chaired the first
World Bank
Task Force on Biodiversity in 1988, which was instrumental in introducing the term "biodiversity" to that institution. He became an Adjunct Professor at the
Stony Brook University
in 1978, a Research Associate at the
Museum of Comparative Zoology
at
Harvard University
for more than two decades, and has been President of the
Margot Marsh Biodiversity Foundation
since 1996. More recently, he was instrumental in the creation of the 25 million Euro Mohamed bin Zayed Species Conservation Fund, a new species-focused fund based in
Abu Dhabi
, and serves as a member of its Advisory Committee. In the late 1970s, Mittermeier undertook one of the first studies of the critically endangered
northern muriqui
woolly spider monkeys in what would become the
Caratinga Biological Station
. Mittermeier has been particularly interested in the discovery and description of species new to science. He has described a total of 14 new species (three
turtles
, four
lemurs
, an African
monkey
, and six Amazonian monkeys) and has eight species named in his honor (three
frogs
, a
lizard
, two lemurs, a monkey, and an
ant
). The most recent of these is Mittermeier's saki,
Pithecia mittermeieri
, a monkey from the Brazilian Amazon. The lizard,
Anolis williamsmittermeierorum
, is named in honor of Mittermeier and American herpetologist
Ernest E. Williams
. Mittermeier has also been a leader in promoting species-focused ecotourism, particularly primate-watching and primate life-listing, and more recently turtle-watching and turtle life-listing, following the very successful model of the bird-watching community. To facilitate this, he launched a
Tropical Field Guide Series and a Pocket Guide Series
focused heavily on primates, but including a number of other species groups as well. More recent publications include
The Tropical Field Guide Series
are
Lemurs of Madagascar, Third Edition
(2010) and
Primates of West Africa
(2011) with a French edition of the
Lemurs of Madagascar
released in 2014. His own primate life-list, now totaling more than 350 species, is among the largest in the world. Mittermeier was born in
New York City
. He received his B.A.(
summa cum laude
,
Phi Beta Kappa
) from
Dartmouth college
and Ph.D. from Harvard University in biological anthropology for a thesis entitled, "Distribution, Synecology, and Conservation of Suriname Monkeys" in 1977.