Background
At the age of nine, Chris was asked to do an animal report on any animal of his choice. He flipped through an Encyclopedia of Animals and serendipitously decided upon the ring-tailed lemur. From that day forward, he decided that he wanted to spend time in Madagascar and committed himself to working there. After reading Gerald Durrell's book, The Aye-Aye and I, Chris was even more convinced that he wanted to work there. In 1999, he spent part of his summer working with Luke Dollar (http://www.nationalgeographic.com/field/explorers/luke-dollar/) on a research project investigating endemic carnivores in the northwestern dry, deciduous forests in Ankarafantsika National Park.
Since then, Chris has returned to Madagascar as frequently as possible, trying to spend at least 3 months a year in country, and having done stints as long as 13 months. In 2004, he departed from Luke's research project and began his own work in the Maroantsetra region of the northeastern rainforests in Madagascar. This departure represented not only a regional shift but also a topical shift, moving from behavioral biology to conservation biology. Chris received an A.B. in Environmental Conservation (Special Concentrations) from Harvard College in 2005.
During his final year at Harvard, he took a course investigating linkages between biodiversity and human health with Eric Chivian and became a research assistant for him on his book, Sustaining Life: How Human Health Depends on Biodiversity. In 2010, he received an MPH in Epidemiology and in 2011 his Ph.D. in Environmental Science, Policy and Management at the University of California, Berkeley. He is beginning a post-doctoral fellowship at the Harvard University Center for the Environment in 2011. He will work with new colleagues at Harvard while also continuing collaborations with his faculty advisors at Berkeley to undertake new research on a 5-year National Science Foundation sponsored project investigating linkages between terrestrial and marine wildlife use, socio-economic status and human nutritional health outcomes.
Since then, Chris has returned to Madagascar as frequently as possible, trying to spend at least 3 months a year in country, and having done stints as long as 13 months. In 2004, he departed from Luke's research project and began his own work in the Maroantsetra region of the northeastern rainforests in Madagascar. This departure represented not only a regional shift but also a topical shift, moving from behavioral biology to conservation biology. Chris received an A.B. in Environmental Conservation (Special Concentrations) from Harvard College in 2005.
During his final year at Harvard, he took a course investigating linkages between biodiversity and human health with Eric Chivian and became a research assistant for him on his book, Sustaining Life: How Human Health Depends on Biodiversity. In 2010, he received an MPH in Epidemiology and in 2011 his Ph.D. in Environmental Science, Policy and Management at the University of California, Berkeley. He is beginning a post-doctoral fellowship at the Harvard University Center for the Environment in 2011. He will work with new colleagues at Harvard while also continuing collaborations with his faculty advisors at Berkeley to undertake new research on a 5-year National Science Foundation sponsored project investigating linkages between terrestrial and marine wildlife use, socio-economic status and human nutritional health outcomes.
