Dr. Denise Herzing
Founder and Research Director of the Wild Dolphin Project, Ph.D.
Dr. Denise Herzing, Founder and Research Director of the Wild Dolphin Project, has studied the Atlantic spotted dolphins inhabiting
Bahamian waters every summer since 1985. She received her B.S. in Marine Zoology; her M.A. in Behavioral Biology; and her Ph.D. in
Behavioral Biology/Environmental Studies. She is an Affiliate Assistant Professor in Biological Sciences at Florida Atlantic
University, Boca Raton, Florida. Dr. Herzing is a 2008 Guggenheim Fellow, a fellow with the Explorers Club, a scientific advisor for the the
American Cetacean Society, and on the board of Schoolyard Films.
She was listed in the TIME100AI most influential people in 2025 and was also awarded the Blue Ambassador for the Loggerhead Marinelife Center.
In addition to many scientific articles (http://www.wilddolphinproject.org/research/library/), she is the coeditor of Dolphin Communication and Cognition, author of “Dolphin Diaries: My 25 years with Spotted Dolphins in the Bahamas”, “The Wild Dolphin Project (2002)” and “Is Anyone Listening? What animals are saying to each other and to us”.
Coverage of her work with the spotted dolphins has appeared in National Geographic Magazine 1992 and 2015, BBC Wildlife, Ocean
Realm and Sonar magazines and featured on Nature, Discovery, PBS, ABC, BBC, NHK, PBS, and TED2013.
https://www.ted.com/talks/denise_herzing
Dr. Herzing has spoken at the Society for Marine Mammalogy, European Cetacean Society, International Fund for Animal Welfare, the Explorers Club, TED2013, Boston Museum of Science, American Cetacean Society and others.
