Arthur Georges

Arthur Georges Receives the 20th Annual
2025 Behler Turtle Conservation Award

Arthur Georges

Arthur Georges, 2025 Behler Turtle Conservation Award Honoree

Biographical Resumé

This year the 20th annual Behler Turtle Conservation Award celebrates and honors Arthur Georges. Arthur is an Australian ecologist and herpetologist with the University of Canberra. Raised in Queensland, he studied mathematics at the University of Queensland until lured north by physicist Harry Messel as a volunteer on the crocodile research program in Arnhem Land, Northern Territory. There he discovered the delights of field herpetology. Under the influence of Graeme Webb, he changed fields in his honors year to study head-body temperature differences in skinks. A Ph.D. on the turtles of Fraser Island cemented the transition, and there was no looking back. His research interests now lie in the evolution, ecology, and systematics of Australian reptiles and, in particular, freshwater turtles. A fundamental interest in these fascinating animals takes him into the field and the laboratory to learn more of their biology and to apply what he has learned in solving contemporary challenges for their conservation. His work has taken him to remote places, including Arnhem Land and the wilds of Papua New Guinea. He has published over 200 papers and has served as Dean of the Faculty of Applied Science at the University of Canberra and as President of the Australasian Wildlife Management Society and the Australian Society of Herpetologists. For many years he provided advice on threatened species and ecosystems to the Australian government as Chair of the ACT Scientific Committee. He is a founding Board Member of the Piku Biodiversity Network which coordinates conservation work in Papua New Guinea, focused especially on freshwater turtles. Arthur is also a member of the Advisory Review Board for the Turtle Taxonomy Fund and a member of the Turtle Taxonomy Working Group and a co-author of recent editions of the Turtles of the World Checklist and Atlas. He was recently elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science. He is a well-respected member of our global chelonian conservation and biology community and highly deserving of the Behler Turtle Conservation Award, and we are most pleased to honor him with this major award at this time.