Jaboury is a frustrated field ecologist. He enjoys nothing more than being in the field, be it in the tropics or in temperate Europe, trying to figure out why things are the way they are. Unfortunately, he is more usually tied to the office where he regards, with envy, the exciting work that his students and postdocs are doing.
Even so, he greatly enjoys applying his plant ecological expertise to important societal challenges ranging from conservation to climate change adaptation to food production. He also enjoys questioning mainstream thought; sometimes he is even right.
He strongly believes in the value of placing ecological ideas within wider societal contexts, a view that has been particularly shaped by work in Vietnam, Thailand, India and Scotland.
Jaboury has been a member of the ATBC for longer than he cares to remember, and was Editor of Biotropica from 2006 to 2013. Through the ATBC he has met a great many interesting people bursting with ideas and insights, and he is looking forward to meeting many more.
Jaboury Ghazoul
Professor of Ecosystem Management
Institute of Terrestrial Ecosystems
Department of Environmental Systems Science
ETH Zurich, Switzerland