Serge Wich

Serge Wich started his biology study at the University of Amsterdam, but obtained his PhD in 2002 at Utrecht University. He worked as a post-doc at Utrecht University until 2005 when he joined Great Ape Trust of Iowa where he worked as a scientist until 2009 when he joined the Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Program and the University of Zurich. He joined Liverpool John Moores University (Liverpool, UK) as a professor in primate biology in 2012. In 2014 he joined the UvA as a honorary professor for the conservation of the great apes. Serge is also a Founding Director of the non-profit, ConservationDrones.org (www.conservationdrones.org). Updates on his work can also be found on www.sergewich.com

His research focuses on on primate behavioral ecology, tropical rain forest ecology and conservation of primates and their habitats. Research is strongly focused on the Indonesian island of Sumatra and Borneo and uses a mixture of observational and experimental fieldwork. At present the key species Serge studies is the Sumatran orangutan where he is involved in research at various fieldsites of wild and reintroduced orangutans. Serge is also involved in island-wide surveys and analyses of orangutan distribution and density and the impact of land use changes on their populations. Together with Dr. Lian Pin Koh he founded ConservationDrones.org and uses drones for conservation applications.