David Ehrenfeld

David Ehrenfeld was a founding member of the Schumacher Center for a New Economics. As a professor at Rutgers, he teaches both graduate and undergraduate courses in ecology. His work deals primarily with the interrelated topics of biodiversity, conservation, and sustainability.

The founding editor of the journal Conservation Biology, a peer-reviewed scientific journal that deals with conserving the biodiversity of Earth, he is also the author of Conserving Life on Earth (1972); The Arrogance of Humanism (1978); Beginning Again: People and Nature in the New Millennium (1993); Swimming Lessons: Keeping Afloat in the Age of Technology (2002); and Becoming Good Ancestors: How We Balance Nature, Community, and Technology (2009). He frequently writes about social ecology and the ever present dangers of technology.

Widely regarded as one of the most prominent conservation biologists in the world, Ehrenfeld was elected a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, was the recipient of the 1993 annual award of the Society for Conservation Biology, and was named the Barbara Munson Goff Rutgers School of Environmental and Biological Sciences Teacher of the Year in 2011.

David Ehrenfeld received his BA and his MD, the latter in 1963, from Harvard University. He then attended the University of Florida, where he earned a PhD in zoology in 1967.