“I could have remained in academia, been successful in that world, and done science that was interesting intellectually but largely irrelevant. (The focus of my research before coming to CZS was the genetics of some species of flies that eat mushrooms.),” he said in his retirement letter to Brookfield. “When I was approached by CZS to help build a conservation biology program, the pitch was irresistible: I could continue to focus my energy on areas of evolutionary and population biology that fascinated me, while doing it in a context that mattered.”