Alex Dehgan
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1800 I St NW Barrett & OConner Center Arizona State University Washington, DC 20006
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Mail code: 5502Campus: Otherus
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Dr. Dehgan is the CEO and co-founder of Conservation X Labs, an innovation and technology startup focused ending the Sixth Mass Extinction. Conservation X Labs both builds new technologies for addressing the underlying drivers of extinction, and harnesses open innovation & mass collaboration to attract new solvers and new solutions. Through its programs, CXL has built the field of conservation technology, supporting over 177 innovators, from 70+ countries, on 6 continents, investing in them $12M since 2017, and helped them raise over $577M in additional investment. Alex is also a Professor of the Practice at Arizona State University and helped design and stand up the new Walton School of Conservation Futures, where he serves as founding faculty member. Alex is also leading the development of the $100 Million South America Fire Fund on behalf of Renaissance Philanthropy ($30 M raised to date)
Alex previously served as the Chief Scientist at the U.S. Agency for International Development, with rank of Assistant Administrator. He founded and headed the Office of Science and Technology, and created the vision for and helped launch the Global Development Lab, the Agency’s DARPA for Development. As the Agency’s first chief scientist in two decades, Dr. Dehgan implemented the President Obama’s promise to restore science to its rightful place within USAID. Alex was the architect of a number of new Agency institutions, including the multi-donor Grand Challenges for Development program, Agency partnerships with universities (HESN) and federal science agencies (PEER), the independent office of science and technology (OST), the position of the Agency geographer and the GeoCenter, and data for development programs, and the Global Development Lab. In less than four years, Alex built OST from scratch to an 80-person office, a $100 M dollar research program, and leveraged or raised $500 million dollars from other donors and partners. Alex was also part of the founding team for the Policy, Planning, & Learning Bureau (PPL). Alex rebuilt technical capabilities in the Agency by putting scientists, physicians, and engineers directly into USAID missions & bureaus, and led efforts for the Agency’s research policy, its biodiversity policy, and its first-ever scientific integrity policy.
Prior to coming to USAID, Alex worked in multiple positions at the Department of State, including the Policy Planning Staff, the Office of the Secretary, the Office of the Science Adviser (STAS), and the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs, and the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq. At State, Alex developed political and science diplomacy strategies towards addressing our most challenging foreign policy issues in Iran, Iraq, and the greater Islamic world, including helping initiating the Obama Administration’s diplomatic efforts with Iran through science diplomacy working with Amb. Dennis Ross, and serving as a liaison to the late Amb. Richard Holbrooke.
Alex Dehgan was also the founding Afghanistan Country Director for the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Afghanistan Biodiversity Conservation Program. Through his leadership, WCS led efforts to create Afghanistan’s first national park, conducted the first comprehensive biological surveys of the country in 30 years, helped develop Afghanistan’s biodiversity conservation laws and policies, and curtailed illegal wildlife trade on US and ISAF military bases. Alex is the author of the book, The Snow Leopard Project(Hachette: Public Affairs Imprint), describing this effort, which was selected by the journal Nature’s book editor as one of the top five science books of 2019, by Mongabay as one of the 10 top environmental books of the year, and won the Gold Medal of the Nautilus Book Prize in 2020.
Dr. Dehgan holds a Ph.D and M.Sc. from The University of Chicago’s Committee on Evolutionary Biology. He also holds a J.D. from the University of California, Hastings, and a B.S. from Duke University. He was chosen as an “Icon of Science” by Seed Magazine in 2005, received the World Technology Award for Policy in 2011, and has been recognized through multiple awards from the Departments of State and Defense, and USAID. In 2013, AAAS selected Alex as one of its 40@40 fellows out of 2,600 AAAS Science Policy Fellows as “an individual who has made exemplary dedication to applying science to serve society.” In 2020, the University of Chicago’s Medical and Biological Alumni Association’s gave Alex their Distinguished Alumni Award, its highest honor. In 2022, Conservation X Labs won the Theodore Roosevelt Genius Award from the Department of Interior. Alex holds 4 patents.
- Ph.D. The University of Chicago, Evolutionary Biology
- M.S. The University of Chicago, Evolutionary Biology
- J.D. University of California, Hastings College of the Law
- B.S. Duke University, Zoology and Political Science
PUBLICATIONS
Books
Dehgan, Alex. January 2019. The Snow Leopard Startup. Hachette Publishing (Public Affairs), available on Amazon https://www.amazon.com/Snow-Leopard-Project-Adventures-Conservation-ebook/dp/B0785M9QQ6. Selected as one of the top 5 science books of 2019 by the book editor at Nature, as one of Mongabay’s top 10 environmental books of 2019, and the 2020 Nautilus Book Award for heroic journeys (Gold Award Winner).
Peer Reviewed Science Articles
Shah, B., H. Holmes, and Dehgan, A. 2026. “Best Practices for the physician’s role in preventing the next pandemic: Biodiversity and its impact on human health”, Lancet Planetary Health (In prep)
Holmes, H.; Winters, M.; Fang, C.; Fotouhi, G.; Mercader, J.; Baisch, D.; and Bunje, P. M.E., & Dehgan A. 2025. “Decentralizing genetic testing for biodiversity monitoring and biosurveillance with the Nucleic Acid Barcode Identification Tool (NABIT)”, Frontiers in Conservation Science (Oct 17, 2025)
Kunselman, Emily, Vanessa Minnis, Sho Kodera, Mary M. Buschmann, Adam Jones, Alexander Dehgan, Amber Hartman Scholz et al. 2025. "Charting a path for microbial conservation in the IUCN: report on “Conservation in a Microbial World” meeting in San Diego, CA, May 2025." Sustainable Microbiology 2(4):qvaf026 .
Martin, R., Bunje, P.M.E, Dehgan, A. 2024. “The Extinction Solutions Index (ESI): a framework to measure solution efficiency for biodiversity conservation.” Ecological Solutions & Evidence 5(3):e12358
Jamie Reaser, Barbara Martinez, Alex Dehgan et al. 2020. “Advancing Federal capacities for the early detection of and rapid response to invasive species through technology innovation”, Journal of Biological Invasions 22:75 (January 2020).
Dehgan, Alex and Cassie Hoffman. 2017. “Addressing the Problem of Scale in Conservation.” Innovations: Technology, Governance, Globalization (July 2017).
Stuart L. Pimm, Sky Alibhai, Richard Bergl, Alex Dehgan, Chandra Giri, Zoë Jewell, Lucas Joppa, Roland Kays, Scott Loarie. 2015. “Emerging Technologies to Conserve Biodiversity,” Trends in Ecology and Evolution, 30(11):633-708 (Nov. 2015).
Mascaro, Jospeh, Gregory Asner, Stuart Davies, Alex Dehgan, and Sassan Saatchi. 2014. “These are the Days of Lasers in the Jungle”, Carbon Balance and Management 9:7.
Smallwood, Peter, Chris Shank, Alex Dehgan, David Lawson, and Peter Zahler. 2011. “Wildlife Conservation in Afghanistan.” Bioscience 61(7):506-511 (July 2011).
Stevens, Kara, Alex Dehgan, Maria Karlstetter, Farid Rawan, Muhammad Ismail Tawhid, Stephane Ostrowski, Jan Mohammad Ali, and Rita Ali. 2011. “Large Mammals Surviving Conflict in the Eastern Forests of Afghanistan”, Oryx 45(2):265-271.
Klopfer, Peter & Joan Polemics* (* J. Polemics was a pseudonym a Duke class). 1988. "The Development of Aggression in Childhood: A Review." 105 Journal of the Elisha Mitchell Society 115.
Non-peer Reviewed Science Articles and Book Chapters
Dehgan, Alex. 2020. Preventing the Next Pandemics: An Upstream Approach to Novel National Security Threats, Day One Transition Paper, Federation of American Scientists (Nov. 18, 2020).
Dehgan, Alex. 2012. “Creating the New Development Ecosystem”. Science 336(6087):1397-8 (June 15).
Ostrowski S., P. Zahler, A. Dehgan, K. Stevens, M. Karlstetter, and P. Smallwood. 2009. “The Asiatic Black Bear Still Survives in Nuristan, Afghanistan,” International Bear News. 18(4): 14-15 (International Assoc. for Bear Research and Management (IBA) and IUCN/SSC Bear Specialist Group).
Dehgan, Alex, Peter Zahler, Jim Wingard, and Lisa Yook. 2007. “Conservation, Wildlife, and Security: Afghanistan Case Study,” Protected Areas and Human Livelihoods, Working Paper 32 (WCS).
Ganzhorn Jorg U., Steven M. Goodman, and Alex Dehgan. 2004. Effects of Forest Fragmentation on Small Mammals and Lemurs. Natural History of Madagascar (Steve M. Goodman and J. Benstead, eds. University of Chicago Press, Chicago).
Dehgan, Alex. 2003. “The Behavior of Extinction: Predicting the Incidence and Local Extinction of Lemurs in Fragmented Habitats of Southeastern Madagascar”. Ph.D Thesis. Committee on Evolutionary Biology, University of Chicago.
Foreign Policy, Science Policy, and International Law Review Articles
Dehgan, Alex. 2022. “A More Secure World”, Science & Diplomacy (October 12, 2022).
Dehgan, Alex and Jean Palmer-Maloney. 2014. “Water Security and Scarcity: Destabilization in Western Afghanistan due to Interstate Water Conflicts”, in Water and Post-Conflict Peacebuilding (eds. Erika Weinthal, Jessica Troell, and Mikiyasu Nakayama, Earthscan Books, London). Peer Reviewed.
Dehgan, Alex and Aleem Walji. 2013. “Prizes and Challenges Matter for Development,” Stanford Social Innovation Review. (October 14, 213).
Dehgan, Alex. 2012. “USAID Will Continue Its Push For Science”, SciDev.Net (20 Dec. 2012).
Dehgan, Alex & E. William Colglazier. 2012. “Development Science and Science Diplomacy”, Science and Diplomacy (Dec. 7, 2012).
Dehgan, Alex. 1998. “Determining Lusaka’s Potential.” 1 Journal of Int’l Wildlife Law and Policy 143.
Dehgan, Alex. 1997-2000. Corresponding Editor. Journal of International Wildlife Law & Policy.
Dehgan, Alex. 1994. "Federalism, Regionalism, & Sovereignty in the Russian Federation." 5 Constitutional L.J. 1.
Dehgan, Alex and Robin Myren. 1993. Book Review of Foreign Investment Legislation in the Republics of the Former Soviet Union, Review of Central and East European Law 20(6):757-760.
Dehgan, Alex. 1993. "A Criticism of the New Mechanisms for Conservation in the Russian Federation." 19 Review of Central & East European Law 661.
Opinion Editorial
Jane Goodall et al. 2022. “Protect Persian leopards, and their defenders, for World Environment Day”, Mongabay.com (June 3, 2022).
Alex Dehgan, Ilya Fischhoff, Chad Gallinat. 2022. “Opinion: If the US is serious about climate change, USAID should be too.” Devex.com (22 April 2022).
Alex Dehgan, Annica Wayman, and DeAndra Beck. 2022. How does the US take on the omicron variant and other global challenges? The Hill (01/09/22).
Pyenson, Nick, and Alex Dehgan. 2020. “2020 feels like dark fiction. Here's how science can inspire a better future,” World Economic Forum, Nov. 30, 2020)
Nick Pyenson & Alex Dehgan. 2020. More Scientists Should Join the Diplomatic Corps, Scientific American, Nov. 16, 2020.
Dehgan, Alex & Kaitlin Christensen. 2011. Meeting the world’s health challenges, boosting our economy,” The Hill. 03/08/11