Eli Greenbaum

Eli Bowen Greenbaum is an American herpetologist and evolutionary biologist. His research focuses on the herpetofauna of Central Africa, particularly that of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Biography

After completing high school in 1992, Greenbaum earned a Bachelor of Science degree in 1996 from Binghamton University in Binghamton, New York. In 1998, he completed a Master of Science degree at the University of Louisiana at Monroe with a thesis on sex determination in the spiny softshell turtle (Apalone spinifera).

In 2006, Greenbaum received his PhD in ecology and evolutionary biology from the University of Kansas in Lawrence, Kansas. His doctoral dissertation, "Molecular systematics of New World microhyline frogs, with an emphasis on the Middle American genus Hypopachus", was completed under the supervision of Linda Trueb.

His nine years of research in the Congo culminated in the book Emerald Labyrinth: A Scientist’s Adventures in the Jungles of the Congo, published in 2017. The book was selected by Forbes as one of the ten best biology books of 2017.

A substantial portion of Greenbaum’s work in the Congo involved collecting DNA samples from frogs and other amphibians and reptiles that may be at risk of extinction. His research combines specimen collection, DNA sequencing, and high-resolution photographic documentation.

In addition to his work in Central Africa, Greenbaum has conducted field research in Australia (1998), El Salvador (2000), Mali (2001), Guinea (2002), Mexico (2005), the Seychelles (2006), South Africa (2006), Peru (2008), Burundi (2011), Indonesia (2013), Uganda (2014), and in Louisiana during the late 1990s.

Selected works

Köhler, G.; Veselý, M.; Greenbaum, E. (2006). The Amphibians and Reptiles of El Salvador. Emerald Labyrinth: A Scientist’s Adventures in the Jungles of the Congo (2017).

Greenbaum, Eli (2025). Venomous River: Changing Climate, Imperiled Forests, and a Scientist's Race to Find New Species in the Congo, University of New Mexico Press,