Jonathan E. Kolby

Jonathan Kolby became involved in wildlife conservation at the age of 15, when he volunteered on his first expedition to document biodiversity in Southeast Asia. He has since been involved in 20 field expeditions spanning the globe, from Honduras to Madagascar to Hong Kong. In 2007, Kolby was awarded a National Geographic Young Explorers Grant to study chytrid fungus and amphibian declines in Honduras. After completing this project, Kolby decided to dedicate himself to combatting global amphibian declines and extinction. He recently established the Honduras Amphibian Research & Conservation Center to specifically prevent amphibian extinctions in Honduras.

Kolby completed his Ph.D. at James Cook University in Australia, where he studied the global spread of amphibian chytrid fungus and ranavirus. Kolby now works as a CITES Policy Specialist at the United States Fish & Wildlife Service Headquarters where he is deeply involved in the management and implementation of international wildlife trade policy.

Kolby has published over a dozen scientific papers, written blog posts for National Geographic and the IUCN Amphibian Specialist Group, and currently runs a citizen science project on iNaturalist called "Saving Salamanders with Citizen Science" to help monitor for the emergence of salamander chytrid fungus in the United States. To make science more accessible to the general public, Kolby actively uses photography and social media to help raise awareness about wildlife conservation issues. He also manages a YouTube channel featuring videos and short films produced for the Honduras Amphibian Research & Conservation Center. Highlights of his recent work include the rediscovery of a frog declared to be extinct in Honduras, the detection of amphibian chytrid fungus in the rain, and the early detection of amphibian chytrid fungus in frogs from Madagascar.