Susan Cheyne
Susan has had a significant impact on applied wildlife conservation through her scientific contributions. Her doctoral research focused on the rehabilitation and reintroduction of gibbons in Kalimantan, Indonesia. She is co-director of the Borneo Nature Foundation and through this work has developed the study of gibbon ecology and behaviour in tropical peat swamp forests, as well as surveys of population density and distribution of gibbons across Indonesian Borneo. Susan initiated the first long-term study of felids and large-mammal biodiversity and conservation, especially focused on the Sunda clouded leopard. She is also involved in the Borneo River Initiative for Nature Conservation and Communities (BRINCC).
From 2010, Susan has been an affiliated lecturer for the highly-successful MSc course at Oxford Brookes University. She has advised several IUCN specialist groups, helping to lead conservation policy, especially on surveys of hunting fruit-bats, and anthropogenic factors on biodiversity in peat-swamp forests. Susan is now vice chair of the IUCN Primate Specialist Group Section on Small Apes where she develops best-practice guidelines for gibbons. Over 15 years she has an amazing range of achievement, with her intellectual ability, dynamism and leadership and she inspires confidence and achievement in all.