Philip Nyhus

Philip Nyhus is the Elizabeth and Lee Ainslie Professor of Environmental Studies and Interdisciplinary Studies Division Chair at Colby College in Waterville, Maine. He holds a Ph.D. in Land Resources from the University of Wisconsin and has been a faculty member at Colby since 2004, previously serving at Franklin and Marshall College. His NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship (1999-2001) launched his career at Colby.

Nyhus leads interdisciplinary research bridging natural and social sciences, focusing on:

• Human-wildlife conflict mitigation and compensation systems
• Tiger, elephant, and large mammal conservation in Asia and North America
• GIS-based spatial modeling for biodiversity risk assessment
• Environmental policy analysis and community-based conservation

His publications demonstrate sustained focus on conservation biology, with recent work emphasizing landscape-scale preservation, human-wildlife coexistence frameworks, and species reintroduction feasibility studies. Article trends show increasing integration of transdisciplinary approaches and global conservation policy analysis.

Awards & Honors:

• National Science Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship for Research and Education Integration (1999-2001)

He has advised numerous graduate students in conservation research, frequently collaborating on publications. As series editor for Biodiversity of the World: Conservation from Genes to Landscapes (Academic Press), he oversees major reference works on snow leopards and cheetahs.