Jonah Ratsimbazafy

Jonah Ratsimbazafy is a Malagasy primatologist. In 2020, he was appointed President of the International Primatological Society.

Life and research Ratsimbazafy received his PhD from the State University of New York at Stony Brook in Physical Anthropology in 2002, and afterwards became Training and Conservation Coordinator for Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust in Madagascar. He has published over 170 papers and supervised over 65 students, including 20 PhD students. His main field of study is lemur ecology and conservation.

Ratsimbazafy is Co-founder and President of the Madagascar Primate Study and Research Group (GERP), Houston Zoo's Director of Madagascar Programs, and Regional Vice-Chair of the IUCN SSC Primate Specialist Group for Madagascar. He is also one of the advisors of the Lemur Conservation Network and sits on the administrative board of SADABE, an NGO. In 2020, Ratsimbazafy was elected President of the International Primatological Society for a four-year term.

Honours and awards In 2015, Ratsimbazafy was awarded Disney's Conservation Hero Award. In 2017, Ratsimbazafy was elected as a member of the African Academy of Sciences.

In 2020, a new species of mouse lemur, Microcebus jonahi, was named in honour of Jonah Ratsimbazafy.