Joel Berger holds the Barbara Cox Anthony University Chair in Wildlife Conservation in the Department of Fish, Wildlife, and Conservation Biology at Colorado State University in Fort Collins. Berger is a long-time senior scientist with the Wildlife Conservation Society and a research associate for the Smithsonian Institution. Before joining CSU, he held the position of John J. Craighead Chair of Wildlife Conservation at the University of Montana.

Over the past four decades Berger has established himself as one of the world’s preeminent field biologists focusing on species in North America, Mongolia, the Arctic and Namibia. Through his prolific publications and five books he has studied a wide variety of species ranging from wild yaks to black rhinos and from pronghorn to wild horses.

Berger was awarded the Aldo Leopold Conservation Award in 2013 from the American Society of Mammalogists and the LaRue II Award from the Society of Conservation Biology for lifetime achievements in conservation. In 2014 he was a finalist for the prestigious Indianapolis Prize, given every other year to an individual who has made extraordinary contributions to conservation efforts. He is a nominee again in 2016.