A. Alonso Aguirre is Professor and Chair, Department of Environmental Science and Policy, George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia, where he heads a program of collaborative research on the ecology of wildlife diseases and links to human health and biodiversity conservation. He has worked in 25 countries over three decades focusing on the conservation of endangered species and ecosystems. Dr. Aguirre co-founded the emerging discipline of Conservation Medicine. He has advised governments of several countries in the Americas, Southeast Asia and Western Europe and briefed the Mexican and United States Congress. His work has been the focus of extensive media coverage.