Dr. Patricia Wright is a scientist and distinguished professor in the Department of Anthropology
at Stony Brook University, NY. She has received the prestigious MacArthur Fellowship (Genius
Award) and three medals of honor from the Malagasy government. In 2014 she was the first
woman to win the Indianapolis Prize for Animal Conservation (equivalent to the Nobel Prize in
Conservation).
Dr. Wright is the Founder and Executive Director of Stony Brook University’s
Institute for the Conservation of Tropical Environments, and is the Founder and Executive
Director of the Centre ValBio, a research and training center in Ranomafana, Madagascar. After
discovering a new species(spee-sheez) of lemur in 1986, she helped establish its habitat as a national park
and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. She continues to lead research expedition to remote
places in Madagascar which make valuable contributions to science.
Dr. Wright has published over 200 scientific papers, authored four books and has given
hundreds of lectures to museums, universities and societies throughout the US and Europe.
Her research and accomplishments have been featured in the award-winning documentary
IMAX/Warner Brothers film “Island of Lemurs: Madagascar” narrated by Morgan Freeman, and most recently the documentary, “Ivohiboro(eev-wee-bore) – the lost forest”, which premiered in France in the fall of 2024.
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