Craig Packer

Dr. Craig Packer graduated from Stanford University in 1972 and completed his PhD at the University of Sussex in 1977. He studied non-human primates in Gombe National Park, Tanzania, off-and-on from 1972-2000, and has headed the Serengeti lion project since 1978. Dr. Packer currently has students working on lions in Tarangire and Serengeti National Parks as well as Ngorongoro Conservation Area, Tanzania. In South Africa, he collaborates with Dr. Rob Slotow, University of Natal-Durban, and is involved in projects at Hluhluwe-Umfolozi and Pilanesberg Parks, as well as a number of private reserves. In addition to his lion work, Dr. Packer is the Principal Investigator of collaborative research projects in the Serengeti funded by the NSF program in the Ecology of Infectious Diseases and the NSF initiative on Biocomplexity.

Dr. Packer is currently Distinguished McKnight Professor in the Department of Ecology, Evolution & Behavior at the University of Minnesota. He was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences earlier this year.