Dr. Patricia Wright is a Distinguished Service Professor and Herrnstein Professor of Conservation Biology at Stony Brook University and founder of Center ValBio Research Station in Madagascar. As a primatologist, tropical ecologist and conservation biologist, she has studied Madagascar’s lemurs and rainforests for nearly four decades. Her long-term research in Ranomafana National Park focuses on the behavioral ecology of Milne-Edwards’ sifakas and other lemurs, exploring their reproduction, development, genetics, feeding, health and responses to environmental change.

Conservation has been central to Dr. Wright’s research since she arrived in Madagascar in 1986 searching for the greater bamboo lemur, which was feared extinct. She rediscovered the species—and also discovered a species previously unknown to science, the golden bamboo lemur. When logging threatened lemurs’ rainforest habitat, Dr. Wright helped spearhead the creation of Ranomafana National Park, established in 1991. She later founded Center ValBio, which combines scientific research with community-based initiatives supporting education, health, sustainable livelihoods and responsible management of the region’s natural resources.

Dr. Wright and her research teams track sifakas through Ranomafana’s rainforest, using systematic behavioral observations to record what individual animals eat and where they travel. Researchers map important feeding trees with GPS and collect biological samples to study genetics, reproduction, parasites and other aspects of lemur health; their long-term records track births, deaths, weather and seasonal changes in forest plants. This research has built a decades-long picture of lemurs and their changing habitat, providing data that guides the protection of Madagascar’s extraordinary lemurs and rainforests.