Bernie Tershy
Co-founder and Board Member at Freshwater Life
Bernie Tershy received his B.S. in Biology from the UC, Santa Cruz, M.S. in Marine Sciences from Moss Landing Marine Labs, and a Ph.D. in Neurobiology and Behavior from Cornell University. He is an Adjunct Professor in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and a Research Biologist in the Institute of Marine Sciences both at the University of California Santa Cruz. He has published over 70 papers on the conservation and ecology of seabirds and island species. He co-founded Island Conservation, a science-based NGO that has protected 242 seabird colonies and 224 insular endemics from extinction and formed over 900,000ha of new marine and island protected areas in Mexico.
Bernie Tershy is a serial conservation entrepreneur and has co-founded:
The Conservation Action Lab, which has published over 140 papers on the conservation and ecology of marine, island and endangered species, and trained 25 graduate students and post docs who now hold significant positions in conservation and academia.
Island Conservation and Conservación de Islas, two science-based NGOs that protected over 460 insular endemics from extinction and formed over 1,665,000ha of new marine and island protected areas.
Conservation Metrics, a for-profit conservation company that uses machine learning tools to analyze sensor-derived big data on wildlife populations, and drive iterative improvements in conservation practice.
Most recently, he has helped start the Henry Arnhold Fellows Program, which finds great people with proven conservation solutions and helps them take those solutions to scale.
His current startup, Freshwater Life, protects the most endangered freshwater species from extinction.
In addition to his work in the conservation entrepreneurship, He is an Adjunct Professor in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and a Research Biologist in the Institute of Marine Sciences both at the University of California Santa Cruz. He has published over 70 papers on the conservation and ecology of seabirds and island species.
He holds a: B.S. in biology from the UC, Santa Cruz; M.S. in marine sciences from Moss Landing Marine Labs; and, Ph.D. in neurobiology and behavior from Cornell University.