Alison Richard

Professor Dame Alison Richard is a senior research scientist in the Yale Department of Anthropology and the Franklin Muzzy Crosby Professor Emerita of the Human Environment and was provost of Yale University from 1994 to 2002. She has studied the ecology and social behavior of wild primates in Africa, Central America, and the Himalayan foothills, but she is most widely known for her research on lemurs in Madagascar. Her most recent book, The Sloth Lemur’s Song: Madagascar from the Deep Past to the Uncertain Present, is a far-reaching account of Madagascar’s history and current situation. For over forty years, she has worked to help conserve the island’s unique natural heritage and enhance socio-economic opportunities for people living in and around forests in the southwest. 

Professor Richard served as vice chancellor of the University of Cambridge from 2003 to 2010. During her tenure, she led several major changes in university policy, reorganized management of the university’s endowment, expanded Cambridge’s global partnerships, and launched and completed a transformational fund-raising campaign. For her accomplishments in the service of higher education, she was awarded a DBE (Dame Commander of the British Empire).

Professor Richard is a trustee of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the Liz Claiborne & Art Ortenberg Foundation. She chairs the advisory board of the Cambridge Conservation Initiative and the leadership council of the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History. Professor Richard received her undergraduate degree in anthropology at the University of Cambridge and her doctorate from London University.