Robert Lacy

B.A., Biology, Wesleyan University, 1977
M.A., Biology, Wesleyan University, 1977
Ph.D., Evolutionary Biology, Cornell University, 1982

After working for 17 years as a CPSG member, volunteer, and Strategic Associate, Bob served as Chairman of CPSG from 2003 to 2011. He has since continued to serve as a Science Advisor and active member of CPSG. Bob is employed as a Senior Conservation Scientist for the Chicago Zoological Society, and he has a facutly position in the Committee on Evolutionary Biology of the University of Chicago.

He has published more than 200 scientific papers on topics ranging from genetics, population biology, evolutionary theory, ecology, behavior, physiology, taxonomy, and conservation. His current scientific interests include the effects of inbreeding on individual fitness and population viability, genetic management of small populations, and the use of simulation models to understand interactions among demographic, genetic, and environmental processes in wildlife populations and to project the impacts of human activities on population dynamics. Bob helped develop techniques for genetic analysis, and is now working with collaborators to link the Vortex model of population dynamics to epidemiological models of disease in wildlife, spatial models of landscape pattern and change, and models of human demography and impacts on the environment. Bob serves on the Field Conservation Committee and on the Small Population Management Advisory Group of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA), and serves on the management team for the Species Conservation Toolkit Initiative. He is a recipient of the Ulysses S. Seal Award for Innovation in Conservation (awarded by CPSG) and the George B. Rabb Award of Conservation Innovation (awarded by the IUCN Species Survival Commission).