of Steven R. Beissinger

    Steven R. Beissinger is a Professor of Conservation Biology in the University of California at Berkeley in the Department of Environmental Science, Policy & Management. He currently serves as the chair of this department and the Ecosystem Sciences Division.  He earned a B.S. (1974) and M.S. (1978) in zoology at Miami University, and a Ph.D. in Natural Resource Ecology at the University of Michigan (1984).

    Dr. Beissinger joined the faculty at Berkeley in 1996 after spending 8 years as a professor at Yale University and two years as an NSF Postdoctoral fellow in Environmental Biology at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Zoological Park in Washington D.C. Beissinger teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in conservation biology, demography and genetics of small populations, and behavioral and population ecology. He has also worked extensively with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. National Park Service, U.S. Forest Service, and state agencies as a member of federal endangered recovery teams, as a contractor to conduct research on endangered species and to develop regional monitoring plans, as an instructor of training courses, and as an reviewer appointed of several federal endangered species recovery programs appointed by the National Academy of Sciences and other professional societies.

    Professor Beissinger’s research has been conducted primarily with birds but has included work with plants, mammals, aquatic invertebrates, and herps. Steve's current work focuses mainly on: (1) field studies of the ecology, demography and monitoring of endangered or exploited species; (2) demographic models of population viability and recovery, and (3) field studies of parental care strategies and mating systems. Field studies have included parrots, raptors (Snail Kites), passerines and seabirds (Marbled Murrelets) in the U.S. (California, Connecticut, the Florida Everglades, Illinois, and Ohio,) and internationally (Venezuela, Guyana, Puerto Rico and Cuba). This work has resulted in 100 articles in scientific journals, books and technical reports. He is senior editor of the books "Population Viability Analysis" (University of Chicago Press, 2002) and "New World Parrots in Crisis: Solutions from Conservation Biology" (Smithsonian Press, 1992).

    Beissinger is a Fellow of the American Ornithologists' Union where has chaired the Conservation Committee and was elected as a Councilor, and serves on the Marbled Murrelet Recovery Team, and the U.S. National Committee of Diversitas. He serves on the editorial boards of the journals Conservation Biology and Current Ornithology, and is a research associate of the Smithsonian Institution and the University of California Museum of Vertebrate Zoology.