Jeffrey E. Lovich

Jeff Lovich Receives the 19th Annual
2024 Behler Turtle Conservation Award

Jeffrey E. Lovich

Jeff Lovich, 2024 Behler Turtle Conservation Award Honoree

Biographical Resumé

This year the 19th annual Behler Turtle Conservation Award celebrates and honors Jeff Lovich. Jeff is a Research Ecologist with the U.S. Geological Survey, Southwest Biological Science Center in Flagstaff, Arizona. Raised in Virginia, he attended George Mason University, where he met Carl Ernst and started studying turtles, earning an M.S. in biology with Carl as his major advisor. He then attended the University of Georgia for a Ph.D., where he was mentored by Whit Gibbons and Justin Congdon at Savannah River Ecology Laboratory, working on the causes and consequences of sexual size dimorphism in turtles. Subsequently, Jeff wrote two editions of books on turtles of the United States and Canada with Carl, and a recent book on turtles of the world with Whit. He has been publishing the results of research on the ecology and taxonomy of turtles and other wildlife for 40 years, resulting in over 200 scientific publications and five books. Along the way he described and named four turtle taxa, including three in the US and one in Japan. Most of his research is in the Mojave and Sonoran deserts of California where he has worked for over 30 years. He is a Fulbright Scholar and an elected Fellow of the Linnean Society of London, the world’s oldest active biological society. Jeff has been one of the editors of Chelonian Conservation and Biology for over 10 years. His continuing research focuses on all aspects of turtle ecology, and the impacts of utility-scale wind and solar energy development on wildlife, especially desert tortoises. Jeff 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 pleased to finally honor him with this major award at this time.