Dr Eduardo Eizirik grew up in southern Brazil, and since his early childhood has been interested in zoology and wildlife conservation. He started working on carnivore ecology and conservation when he was 18, as an undergraduate intern in a field project in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest. Still while pursuing his undergraduate studies, he became interested in carnivore genetics and evolution, and focused his baccalaureate thesis on this topic. From then on he pursued an academic career focusing on carnivore evolutionary genetics, molecular ecology and conservation, which led to the publication of several important scientific papers. He conducted his Ph.D. with Dr. Stephen J. O'Brien's Laboratory of Genomic Diversity at the National Cancer Institute in the USA, where he lived for seven years, during which he was involved in diverse research projects, ranging from mammalian phylogeny to coat colour genetics of wild cats. He returned to Brazil in 2003 and was soon hired as a professor, creating a rapidly expanding research group that has already achieved international visibility in the fields of phylogeography and conservation genetics.
Eduardo's current foci of research include the molecular characterization of carnivore communities in Latin American and African ecosystems, providing innovative tools for evolutionary research and conservation planning on behalf of these species. He is a member of the SSC Cat Specialist Group and Small Carnivore Specialist Group. Dr. Eizirik, Dr. O'Brien, CCF's Director, Dr. Marker, and Geneticist, Dr. Schmidt-Küntzel, are all collaborators in the study of felid conservation science.
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