Speakers: Lilian Pintea, PhD

About

Lilian Pintea brings thirty years of experience in applying satellite imagery and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to the job of conserving chimpanzees and their vanishing habitats in Africa. As Vice President of Conservation Science at the Jane Goodall Institute (JGI), Dr. Pintea and his team oversee science activities and functions at the Institute, supporting all programs and bringing targeted research, analysis, and technological innovation to support JGI’s mission. Lilian is passionate about unlocking the potential of science and innovative technologies to address the “last mile” challenges in conservation where local people make daily choices and decisions impacting the environment. He works closely with local communities, village, national governments, academia, other NGOs, and JGI staff in Africa to adopt and build capacity to integrate science and technologies with the local solutions and decision-making processes and tackle some of the hardest challenges in conservation, natural resource management, and climate change. He is the co-author of the book, Local Voices, Local Choices: The Tacare Approach to Community-Led Conservation, and is the author of and contributor to dozens of scientific publications spanning conservation, GIS, One Health, and more. Recognized as a pioneer in applying innovative geospatial technologies to conservation, Dr. Pintea has presented invited talks to numerous conferences. Dr. Pintea holds a Ph.D. in conservation biology from the University of Minnesota. He is a former MacArthur Scholar of the MacArthur Interdisciplinary Program on Global Change, Sustainability, and Justice at the University of Minnesota and a former Fulbright Scholar at the Center for Remote Sensing at the University of Delaware. With frequent trips to Sub-Saharan Africa, Dr. Pintea lives in Silver Spring, Maryland.