Craig Stanford

American biological anthropologist

Craig Stanford is Professor of Biological Sciences and Anthropology at the University of Southern California. He is also a Research Associate in the herpetology section of the Los Angeles County Natural History Museum. He is known for his field studies of the behavior, ecology and conservation biology of chimpanzees, mountain gorillas and other tropical animals, and has published more than 140 scientific papers and 17 books on animal behavior, human evolution and wildlife conservation. He is best known for his field study of the predator–prey ecology of chimpanzees and the animals they hunt in Gombe National Park, Tanzania, and for his long term study of the behavior and ecology of chimpanzees and mountain gorillas in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, Uganda. He is also a herpetologist and involved in research and conservation of tortoises and turtles. He is Chair of the IUCN SSC Tortoise and Freshwater Turtle Specialist Group, and is on the board of the Turtle Conservancy.

Stanford received his BA in anthropology and zoology at Drew University, his MA in anthropology at Rutgers University, and his PhD in anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley in 1990. He taught at the University of Michigan and joined the University of Southern California in 1992. He has received numerous grants from the National Science Foundation, National Geographic Society, Wenner Gren Foundation, Leakey Foundation, among others. He has also received several major teaching and research awards at USC. He lectures widely in the U. S. and abroad.