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Researcher Profiles
ICTE
N-543 SBS Bldg.
SUNY at Stony Brook
Stony Brook, NY
11794-4364
631.632.9440
Fax: 631.632.7692
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Patricia
Chapple Wright
Biographical Sketch
In 1986, while on an exploration expedition to remote rainforests in Madagascar, Dr. Wright and colleagues discovered a new species of lemur, the golden bamboo lemur (Hapalemur aureus). When this rain forest, and the future of this new species, were threatened by timber exploitation, Dr. Wright's attention turned to conservation.  Patricia Wright spearheaded an integrated conservation and development project at Ranomafana that focused on the protection and conservation of endemic flora and fauna as well as rural development, education, and promotion of health services in the park's peripheral zone.
In 1989, Dr. Wright became a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Fellow, and in 1995 she was awarded the "Chevalier d'Ordre National" (National Medal of Honor of Madagascar) and in 2004 the “Officier d”Ordre National” from the President of Madagascar in recognition of her conservation work. She has been a member of the Committee for Research and Exploration of National Geographic Society since 2000, and the National Geographic Society Conservation Trust since 2002. In 2004 she became an AAAS Fellow (American Association for the Advancement of Science).
Dr. Wright is currently a professor in the Department of Anthropology at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. She supervises students in two doctoral programs at Stony Brook: Interdepartmental Doctoral Program in Anthropological Sciences and Department of Ecology and Evolution. Dr. Wright has served as the Executive Director for the Institute for the Conservation of Tropical Environments (ICTE) since 1992.
After graduating with an undergraduate biology degree from Hood College, Frederick, Maryland in 1966, Patricia Wright received a Ph.D. in Anthropology from City University of New York in 1985. Her dissertation research conducted in the Manu National Park, Peru on the behavior and ecology of the world's only nocturnal monkey, the owl monkey, has become a classic. After postdoctoral research on reproductive physiology and behavior of tarsiers at the Duke University Primate (now Lemur) Center, Malaysia and the Philippine Islands, she became an assistant professor in the Department of Biological Anthropology at Duke University.
Dr. Wright has studied behavioral ecology of non-human primates in South America, Asia and Madagascar. Her research in Madagascar has concentrated on a long-term behavioral and demographic study of the Milne-Edward's sifaka (Propithecus edwardsi) which now spans twenty years of continuous research. Her research focuses on the evolution of behavior and the effect of parasites, predation, and environmental stress on this lemur population. Her most recent endeavors include the construction of a million dollar International Center for Training and Research at the edge of the Ranomafana National Park. This training complex completed in 2003 offers modern facilities to over 100 scientists a year. Dr. Wright received an interdisciplinary science grant from the Packard Foundation which combines field-based socioeconomic research in the communities surrounding Ranomafana National Park, Madagascar, with field-based assessment of the current state of biodiversity inside the Park to identify target areas for conservation management and community outreach. Her most recent grant is from NIH to pursue finding medicinal plants in the rain forest by working with traditional healers, botanists and natural product chemists.
Dr. Wright has co-edited a book with E. Simons and S. Gursky entitled “Tarsiers: Past, Present and Future,”. Dr. Wright has also coauthored the 2004 edition of "The Lonely Planet Guide to Madagascar" and written an article on her lemur research, published in the June 2005 edition of Natural History.
Dr. Wright’s life has been highlighted in a feature film directed by Michael Apted, “Me and Isaac Newton.” Her work has been the focus of several documentary films, as well as articles in the New York Times and Newsday, and books including “The Eighth Continent,” by Peter Tyson and “The Song of the Dodo” by David Quammen. In 2006 Smithsonian Magazine featured her work.
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