Dr. Craig Stanford is a well-known expert on the behavior, ecology and conservation of primates and other animals, and on the biological roots of human behavior. He is Professor of Biological Sciences and Anthropology at the University of Southern California. Stanford has conducted field research on primates, especially our close relatives the chimpanzee and mountain gorilla, and other animals for more than 30 years in Africa and Asia. He is known for his research on chimpanzee in collaboration with Jane Goodall, and for his work on the ecological relationship between chimpanzee and gorillas in forests where the two apes occur together. He is also a reptile biologist and Chair of the IUCN Tortoise and Freshwater Turtle Specialist Group, and has conducted or supervised studies of turtles and tortoises in Asia and Latin America. He has been the recipient of numerous grants and awards for both his research and writing, and is a frequent guest on radio and tv.

Stanford is the author of 175 scholarly and popular articles on animal behavior and human nature topics, including the widely used text book Biological Anthropology. Stanford has recently published Unnatural Habitat (Heyday Books 2024) about the ecosystem of Southern California, and The New Chimpanzee (Harvard University Press 2018) about the race against extinction for the great apes. He also has a forthcoming book, The Turtle Crisis, about the threats to the survival of the world's turtles and tortoises.

Maddalena Bearzi graduated from the University of Padova, Italy, with a degree in Natural Science and later received a Ph.D. in Biology and a Postdoctoral fellowship at the University of California, Los Angeles. Since 1990, Maddalena has been involved in studying the ecology of marine mammals and sea turtles with a strong conservation bias. She has worked on diverse research and educational projects around the world. Among these projects, she organized and conducted the Yucatan Programs (Rio Lagartos and El Palmar Reserves, Mexico), two long-term investigations on local dolphins and sea turtles. In 1996, Maddalena founded the Los Angeles Dolphin Project in California, the first comprehensive marine mammal study ever conducted in L.A. waters. Under Maddalena's directorship, the LADP has become one of the longest running dolphin studies in California and the source of many scientific and conservation publications and collaborations. In 1998, she co-founded Ocean Conservation Society taking the position of President, where she combined her skills as a marine biologist with her experience as an active environmentalist. She has a strong academic background in Marine Biology, Ecology, and Marine Mammal Conservation combined with twenty plus years of field research experience, and five years of teaching experience at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Maddalena has a broad experience as a writer, journalist and television reporter - she has written three books and over 350 articles for local and national publications on science, nature, and travel -. Her work and books have been covered, among others, by CNN, KPCC, PRI, CBS2/KCAL9, NBC4, Hallmark Channel, Los Angeles Times, New Scientist, American Scientist. Maddalena is also a blogger for the National Geographic NewsWatch and the Huffington Post.

In 1998, she has published the book "Beautiful Minds: The Parallel Lives of Great Apes and Dolphins", written in collaboration with Dr. Craig Stanford for Harvard University Press (now available in paperback). Her most recent book "Dolphin Confidential: Confessions of a Field Biologist" has been published by Chicago University Press (2012). She currently lives in Los Angeles with her husband and dog, working on a new book.

Further information on her conservation work and outreach public efforts can be found at http://www.oceanconservation.org.