Our Board

James Gibbs

Dr. James Gibbs is a SUNY Distinguished Professor in the ESF Department of Environmental and Forest Biology and director of ESF’s Roosevelt Wild Life Station. Gibbs is an international expert in conservation biology. His career comprises nearly 25 years of academic excellence in scholarship, teaching and creative activities. He has produced over 120 peer-reviewed journal publications and five widely used books. Gibbs is internationally known for his research in the Galapagos, especially his work on giant tortoises. He was chosen by the Ecuadorian government to accompany the frozen remains of Lonesome George, a tortoise that became the international face of conservation biology, from the Galapagos to the American Museum of Natural History in 2012 so the animal could be preserved. Gibbs is also renowned for his work with snow leopards in Siberia.

In addition to his research and teaching, he has served in an array of prestigious positions internationally, including as an international scholar with the HESP Academic Fellowship Program (Russia-Ukraine-Moldova), Soros Open Society Foundation; a member of the external evaluation committee of the Instituto Ecologia in Mexico; vice chair of the Altai Assistance Project, partnering in an effort to achieve sustainable development in the Altai region of Russia); a contractor with the Charles Darwin Foundation; and a contractor with the National Environmental Management Council in Tanzania; and a participant in the United Kingdom National Environmental Research Council/Imperial College/Zoological Society of London. Gibbs received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Maine at Orono, where he studied wildlife management. He earned his master’s degree in biological sciences from the University of Missouri and his doctorate in forestry and environmental studies from Yale University.