Robert Pringle
Senior Fellow 2024–2025

Rob Pringle is a professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Princeton University (US). His research addresses questions at the interface of community, molecular, and evolutionary ecology, along with more applied topics in ecophysiology and ecosystem restoration. The unifying theme of research in the Pringle Laboratory is the study of feeding relationships–particularly those involving large mammalian herbivores and carnivores in African savanna ecosystems.

Throughout his career, Rob has integrated diverse research approaches in innovative ways, often combining large-scale field experiments with laboratory analyses (notably DNA metabarcoding), remote sensing, and modeling. His work seeks to uncover the mechanisms behind biodiversity maintenance, the consequences of biodiversity loss, and the factors contributing to ecological resilience. While much of his research is focused on Africa, he has also conducted studies in the Caribbean, eastern Australia, and his home state of New Jersey (US).

Rob is a senior editor for the Monographs in Population Biology series (Princeton University Press) and Ecological Monographs (Ecological Society of America). He also serves on the board of directors of the Guanacaste Dry Forest Conservation Fund and has been a scientific advisor to the Gorongosa Restoration Project in Mozambique.

He earned an MSc in African History from Oxford before completing his PhD in Biology at Stanford University in 2009. Prior to joining Princeton in 2012, he spent three years as a Junior Fellow in the Harvard Society of Fellows. In 2024, Rob was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship.