Expertise: Education, scientific
Languages: English
Location: Boulder, Colorado
Web: http://marcbekoff.com
Marc Bekoff is Professor Emeritus of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Colorado, Boulder, and is a Fellow of the Animal Behavior Society and a former Guggenheim Fellow. In 2000 he was awarded the Exemplar Award from the Animal Behavior Society for major long-term contributions to the field of animal behavior. Marc is also an ambassador for Jane Goodall's Roots & Shoots program, in which he works with students of all ages, senior citizens, and prisoners, and also is a member of the Ethics Committee of the Jane Goodall Institute. He and Jane co-founded the organization Ethologists for the Ethical Treatment of Animals: Citizens for Responsible Animal Behavior Studies in 2000. Marc is on the Board of Directors of The Fauna Sanctuary and The Cougar Fund and on the advisory board for Animal Defenders, the Laboratory Primate Advocacy Group, and Project Coyote. He has been part of the international program, Science and the Spiritual Quest II and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) program on Science, Ethics, and Religion. Marc is also an honorary member of Animalisti Italiani and Fundacion Altarriba. In 2006 Marc was named an honorary board member of Rational Animal and a patron of the Captive Animals' Protection Society. In 2009 he was named a member of the Scientific Expert Advisory Panel of Voiceless, The Animal Protection Institute and a faculty member of the Humane Society University, and in 2010 he was named to the advisory board of Living with Wolves. Marc is also a scholar-in-residence at the University of Denver's Institute for Human-Animal Connection, where he is working with colleagues to develop the field of Conservation Social Work. In 2005 Marc was presented with The Bank One Faculty Community Service Award for the work he has done with children, senior citizens, and prisoners. In 2009 he was presented with the St. Francis of Assisi Award by the New Zealand SPCA.
Marc's main areas of research include animal behavior, cognitive ethology (the study of animal minds), and behavioral ecology, and he has also published extensively on animal issues. He has published more than 200 papers and 22 books. Recent examples include Wild Justice: The Moral Lives of Animals (2009), a sizeable revision and expansion of his 1998 Encyclopedia of Animal Rights and Animal Welfare (2009) and The Animal Manifesto: Six Reasons For Expanding Our Compassion Footprint (2010). Marc is working on a number of new books including Ignoring Nature: Animal Losses and What We Must Do About Them — Now (University of Chicago Press) and Rewilding Our Hearts (New World Library).
Marc's work has been featured on in wide range of media, including Time Magazine, The New York Times, New Scientist, Scientific American, and NPR, BBC, Fox, CNN, Good Morning America, and 20/20.
In 1986 Marc became the first American to win his age-class at the Tour du Var bicycle race (also called the Master's/age-graded Tour de France). Among Marc's hobbies are cycling, skiing, hiking, and reading spy novels.
