Paul R. Ehrlich
President, Center for Conservation Biology
Bing Professor of Population Studies
(650) 723-3171
[Books][Selected pdfs] [Curriculum Vitae]
[Complete Bibliography (pdf)]
Paul R. Ehrlich received his Ph.D. from the University of Kansas. Co-founder with Peter H. Raven of the field of coevolution, he has pursued long-term studies of the structure, dynamics, and genetics of natural butterfly populations. He has also been a pioneer in alerting the public to the problems of overpopulation, and in raising issues of population, resources, and the environment as matters of public policy.
Professor Ehrlich's research group covers several areas. It continues to study the dynamics and genetics of natural populations of checkerspot butterflies (Euphydryas). This research has applications to such problems as the control of insect pests and optimum designs for nature reserves. A central focus of his group is investigating ways that human-disturbed landscapes can be made more hospitable to biodiversity. This work in "countryside biogeography" is under the direction of Professor Gretchen Daily, founder of the field, and Director of the CCB. The Ehrlich group's policy research on the population-resource-environment crisis takes a broad overview of the world situation, but also works intensively in such areas of immediate legislative interests as endangered species and the preservation of genetic resources. A special interest of Ehrlich's is cultural evolution, especially with respect to environmental ethics, and he is deeply involved in the Millennium Assessment of Human Behavior (MAHB) which he co-founded with his wife Anne (policy coordinator of the CCB) and Professor Donald Kennedy..
Professor Ehrlich is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, the Beijer Institute of Ecological Economics, and a member of the National Academy of Sciences. Professor Ehrlich has received several honorary degrees, the John Muir Award of the Sierra Club, the Gold Medal Award of the World Wildlife Fund International, a MacArthur Prize Fellowship, the Crafoord Prize of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences (given in lieu of a Nobel Prize in areas where the Nobel is not given), in 1993 the Volvo Environmental Prize, in 1994 the United Nations' Sasakawa Environment Prize, in 1995 the Heinz Award for the Environment, in 1998 the Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement and the Dr. A. H. Heineken Prize for Environmental Sciences, in 1999 the Blue Planet Prize, in 2001 the Eminent Ecologist Award of the Ecological Society of America and the Distinguished Scientist Award of the American Institute of Biological Sciences, and in 2009 the Margalef Prize in Ecology and Environmental Sciences.
Members of Professor Ehrlich's research group have gone on to join the faculties of Princeton, Brown, and the Universities of California, Nevada, Texas, and Florida.
Selected Publications (see also Books)
Ehrlich PR. 2010. The MAHB, the culture gap, and some really inconvenient truths. PLoS Biology 8 e1000330.
Ehrlich PR, Ehrlich AH. 2010. The culture gap and its needed closures. International Journal of Environmental Studies 67: 481-492.
Ehrlich PR, Pringle RM. 2008. Where does biodiversity go from here? A grim business-as-usual forecast and a hopeful portfolio of partial solutions. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 105: 11579-11586.
Rogers DS, Ehrlich PR. 2008. Natural selection and cultural rates of change. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 105: 3416-3420.
Ehrlich PR. 2008. Key issues for attention from ecological economists. Environment and Development Economics 13: 1-20.
Ehrlich PR. 2008. Demography and policy: A view from outside the discipline. Population and Development Review 34: 103-113.
Ehrlich, P. R. and L. H. Goulder (2007). Is current consumption excessive? A general framework and some indications for the U.S. Conservation Biology 21: 1145-1154.
Daily, G. C., P. R. Ehrlich, and A. Sanchez-Azofeifa. 2001. Countryside biogeography: Utilization of human-dominated habitats by the avifauna of southern Costa Rica. Ecological Applications 11: 1-13.
Hughes, J. B., G. C. Daily, and P. R. Ehrlich. 2000. Conservation of insect diversity: a habitat approach. Conservation Biology 14: 1788-1797.
Hughes, J. B., G. C. Daily, and P. R. Ehrlich. 1997. Population diversity: Its extent and extinction. Science 278: 689-692.
Ehrlich, P. R. 1996. Conservation in temperate forests: What do we need to know and do? Forest Ecology and Management 85: 9-19.
Daily, G.C. and P.R. Ehrlich. 1994. Influence of Social Status on Individual Foraging and Community Structure in a Bird Guild. Oecologia. 100: 153-165.
Ehrlich, P.R., A.H. Ehrlich, and G.C. Daily. 1993. Food Security, Population, and Environment. Population and Development Review 19:1-32.
Daily, G.C., P.R. Ehrlich, and N.M. Haddad. 1993. Double keystone bird in a keystone species complex. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 90:592-594.
Daily, G.C. and P.R. Ehrlich. 1992. Population, sustainability, and Earth's carrying capacity. BioScience 42:761-771.
Ehrlich, P.R. 1992. Population biology of checkerspot butterflies and the preservation of global biodiversity. Oikos 63:6-12.
Daily, G.C., P.R. Ehrlich, and D. Wheye. 1991. Determinants of spatial distribution in a population of the subalpine butterfly Oeneis chryxus. Oecologia 88:587-596.
Ehrlich, P.R. and E.O. Wilson. 1991. Biodiversity studies: Science and Policy. Science 253:758-762.
Ehrlich, P.R. and A.H. Ehrlich. 1991. Healing the Planet. Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, New York.
Ehrlich, P.R. and A.H. Ehrlich. 1990. The Population Explosion. Simon and Schuster, New York.
Daily, G.C. and P.R. Ehrlich. 1990. An exploratory model of the impact of rapid change on the world food situation. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, Series B 241:232-244.
Ehrlich, P.R. and J. Roughgarden. 1987. The Science of Ecology. Macmillan, New York.
Ehrlich, P.R., A.E. Launer, and D.D. Murphy. 1984. Can sex ratio be defined or determined? The case of a population of checkerspot butterflies. Amer. Natur. 124:527-539.
Ehrlich, P.R., et al. 1975. Checkerspot butterflies: A historical
Ehrlich, P.R. and P.H. Raven. 1965. Butterflies and plants: A study in coevolution. Evolution 18:586-608.