Dr. Barbara Taylor
Dr. Barbara Taylor has been researching marine mammals for over 40 years, leading NOAA's marine mammal genetics group at the Southwest Fisheries Science Center in California. She specializes in working to assess risk of extinction, evident with her position as a chief scientiston all vaquita surveys.
Dr. Barbara Taylor has been researching marine mammals for over 40 years. She led the marine mammal genetics group at the Southwest Fisheries Science Center in La Jolla, California for 15 years and now is retired from federal service but remains an independent scientist. She specializes in working to assess risk of extinction. She was chief scientist together with Dr. Lorenzo Rojas-Bracho on all vaquita surveys, Mexico’s critically endangered endemic porpoise. She chaired the Conservation Committee of the Society for Marine Mammalogy, and serves as the Listing Authority for the Cetacean Specialist Group of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature(IUCN). She co-chaired a workshop on Ex-Situ Options for Cetacean Conservation in 2018 and chaired a 2019 workshop to develop a One Plan Approach for the Yangtze finless porpoise. She was awarded the Society for Conservation Biology’s LaRoe award for her outstanding career achievements in translating conservation science into real-world conservation efforts, the American Cetacean Societies lifetime achievement award, and was awarded honorary membership in the Society for Marine Mammalogy.
