biology

Stuart Pimm

Stuart Pimm is a biology topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Stuart Pimm rather than just read about it. In short: Stuart Leonard Pimm (born 27 February 1949) is the Doris Duke Chair of Conservation Ecology at Duke University. His early career was as a theoretical ecologist but he now specializes in scientific research of biodiversity and conservation biology.

Key takeaways

Stuart Pimm belongs to biology; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Stuart Pimm to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Stuart Pimm from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Stuart Leonard Pimm (born 27 February 1949) is the Doris Duke Chair of Conservation Ecology at Duke University. His early career was as a theoretical ecologist but he now specializes in scientific research of biodiversity and conservation biology.

Education Pimm was born in Derbyshire, United Kingdom. He was educated at the University of Oxford and was awarded a PhD in Ecology from New Mexico State University in 1974.

Research Pimm is currently Doris Duke Chair of Conservation Ecology in the Nicholas School of the Environment at Duke University, Durham, North Carolina. Pimm has collaborated with a wide range of other scientists, including Robert May, Peter H. Raven, Joel E. Cohen, George Sugihara, Thomas Lovejoy, and Jared Diamond. His early work has examined the mathematical properties of food webs and indicated that complex food webs should be less stable than simple food webs. Since 1990s, he concentrated on the patterns of species extinctions, the rate of species extinction and practical methods to stop them. His research has included quantifying modern extinction rates and examining conservation approaches in tropical ecosystems.

Publications

Pimm has published more than 350 peer-reviewed scientific articles, including several in the scientific journals Nature and Science. He has published several books including, A Scientist Audits the Earth and he has published articles in popular science publications such as Scientific American. Up until mid-2019, he was a regular contributor to the National Geographic blog.

Awards He is an acknowledged authority in the field of conservation biology, recognized with several awards:

World Sustainability Award (2025) International Cosmos Prize (2019). Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement (2010). Dr. A. H. Heineken Prize from the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (2006). Edward T. LaRoe III Memorial Award from the Society of Conservation Biology (2006). Marsh Prize for Conservation from the Zoological Society of London (2003). New Mexico State University made him an alumnus of the year in 2005. A new wasp species from the cloud forests of Colombia's tropical Andes has been named Dolichomitus pimmi in honor of Pimm and his conservation efforts in that region.

SavingSpecies and Saving Nature In 2010, Pimm founded a non-profit organization called SavingSpecies to preserve and restore natural habitats. In 2019, the organization was dissolved and Saving Nature was created to reflect a broader mission from the work that Saving Species has started. Saving Nature partners with local nonprofit organizations to connect fragmented habitats into biocorridors for wildlife. It works in biodiversity hotspots, such as in Colombia, Brazil, Ecuador, India, Indonesia and Tanzania. In Colombia, Pimm has worked with local organizations,on projects linking fragmented forests, including expansion of the La Mesenia - Paramillo Nature Reserve.

Controversy In 2014, Pimm was involved in a controversy related to allegedly sexist remarks he made in a book review published by the Elsevier journal Biological Conservation. Pimm's article "sparked debate on Twitter almost immediately." Pimm defended his stance by stating that the line which had received criticism was dialogue from a movie. The journal did issue a mea culpa, indicating an opinion of Pimm's article. "We would like to inform our readers that parts of the book review Keeping Wild: Against the Domestication of the Earth by Stuart Pimm, Volume 180, pages 151–152 are denigrating to women.". Of Pimm's article, the journal admitted that "It just contains some offensive language." When challenged, Pimm responded that he did not think his "wording was sexist..." However, some disagreed. In a later letter to the editor, Amanda Stanley, then Conservation Science Program Officer at the Wilburforce Foundation, explained why Pimm's "...book review [was] so offensive." An article in The New Yorker later that year explored the debate between conservationists that led to Pimm's controversial remark. The article asserted that, in his review, "Pimm's emotions got the better of him." For his part, according to the article, Pimm was reported as being "totally unrepentant."

Personal

Pimm married Julia Killeffer in 1990. He has two daughters from a previous marriage, both in the United States. He lives in Durham, North Carolina in USA but travels extensively around the world.

References

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Stuart Pimm

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Stuart Pimm claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In biology, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Stuart Pimm before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Stuart Pimm ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Stuart Pimm

In research: Stuart Pimm appears in biology research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Stuart Pimm in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Stuart Pimm is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1949 births, Academic scandals in the United States, Alumni of the University of Oxford, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Stuart Pimm outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Stuart Pimm in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Stuart Pimm means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Stuart Pimm out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Stuart Pimm in simple terms?

Why does Stuart Pimm matter?

Because it connects several biology ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Stuart Pimm?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Stuart Pimm.