Simon Husson
Founder and Director of Conservation and Biodiversity Research. Simon started his orangutan research in the Sabangau in July 1995, as part of the University of Nottingham KALTROP research team. A zoology graduate, Simon studied large mammal populations in Nyika National Park, Malawi and Sweetwaters Reserve, Kenya before returning to Borneo in 1999 and establishing the Orangutan Tropical Peatland Research Project with Helen Morrogh-Bernard, Laura D'Arcy and Claire McLardy. Simon's research has been focused on studies of orangutan density and distribution throughout the Sabangau Ecosystem, providing the essential scientific basis for establishing protected-area status and conservation management plans for the region. This research has focused extensively on the application of nest-survey methods for accurately estimating orangutan density and Simon is regarded as a leading expert in this field. Simon coordinated large-scale surveys of orangutan density throughout Central Kalimantan for the 2004 Orangutan Population and Habitat Viability Analysis (PHVA); chaired the Central Kalimantan Working Group and co-wrote the final. As well as undertaking research, Simon is heavily involved with habitat management and restoration activities; collaborating with other scientists to better understand orangutan distribution and factors affecting their density and developing strategic conservation management plans to protect priority populations. Simon currently divides his time between Indonesia and the UK, completing a PhD at the Wildlife Research Group, University of Cambridge; managing the OuTrop Project and consulting for the Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation's Nyaru Menteng Reintroduction Centre.

Dr Helen Morrogh-Bernard
Founder and Director of Orangutan Research. Helen began her research in the Sabangau Forest in July 1995 with the University of Nottingham KALTROP research team, returning in 1996 to complete her undergraduate zoology dissertation mapping orangutan density at the CIMTROP research site in the northern Sabangau Ecosystem. Helen then completed a Masters degree in Conservation Biology at Manchester Metropolitan University, studying black rhinoceros behaviour in Sweetwaters Reserve in Kenya, before returning to Sabangau in 1999 with Simon, Laura and Claire. A six month sojourn to Negros Island in the Philippines followed, working as a research manager for Coral Cay Conservation, before establishing the orangutan behaviour research project in the Sabangau in 2003. With a small and dedicated research team, Helen habituated 25 individuals and started collecting data on orangutan activity, ranging, social and feeding behaviour, identifying how orangutans were surviving in and utilising a logged forest. Helen now collaborates with a wide-range of scientists and research projects, comparing orangutan behaviour between geographical locations, habitats and islands, helping to build up a complete picture of the ecology of this cryptic ape. Helen completed her PhD at the Wildlife Research Group, University of Cambridge, in 2009 and continues to oversee the behaviour research in the Sabangau with personal research interests focusing on orangutan social structure, ranging, male-male interactions and the unique cultural traits of the Sabangau orangutan population. She is now an Honorary University Fellow at the University of Exeter.

Dr Susan Cheyne
Director of Gibbon and Felid Research. Susan is a post-doctoral researcher with the Wildlife Conservation Research Unit, Oxford University, working with Professor David Macdonald. she is co- director of the Orang-utan Tropical Peatland Project and initiated both the Gibbon Behaviour, Feeding Ecology and Socioecology Project and the Sabangau Felid Project in the Sabangau forest catchment, which has confirmed the presence of clouded leopards in this habitat. She also developing behavioural ecology and density studies on felid guilds within the Sabangau and surveys to determine the degree of bushmeat trade in flying foxes as well as indirect and direct hunting pressure on felids. In addition she is responsible for coordinating the volunteer programme developing long-term, wildlife monitoring projects to be carried out by students and volunteers which will contribute to the scientific knowledge of the study area. Since 2005. She is also a scientific advisor to the Kalaweit Gibbon Project, raising awareness of the plight of gibbons and advising on rehabilitation and reintroduction of gibbons in Indonesia. Since 2010 she is an associate lecturer at Oxford Brookes University teaching Captive Management on the Primate Conservation MSc. She is a trustee of the charity MASC (Monkeys Acting in Schools for Conservation) and a council member of the Primate Society of Great Britain (PSGB) and serve on the Captive Care Working Party for PSGB.

Laura D'Arcy
Director of Forestry Research and Volunteer Programme Coordinator. Laura met Helen and Simon at Manchester Metropolitan University in 1998 and came to Sabangau for the first time in 1999 to carry out research on forest structure and beetle abundance for her master’s degree in Conservation Biology. Laura returned to Sabangau in 2001 to help establish the OuTrop Volunteer Program. She is a teacher and the Field Co-ordinator for ZSL in Indonesia. Laura has completed the Wilderness Training Far from Help (Parts 1 & 2) course and has OCR Qualification in Off-site Safety Management. She is also a member of the British Mountaineering Council and has completed the Mountain Leaders Training (summer) course and is now working towards her assessment. Laura carried out her training at Blue Peris Mountain Centre and Northern Mountain Sport.

Dr Mark Harrison – Project Development Leader
Mark has been working with OuTrop since 2003, when he came out to help Helen during the very first stages of the Orangutan Behaviour research programme. After working to habituate the orangutans, collect data and train local Indonesian staff in data collection for a year, he started his own PhD research, also at the Wildlife Research Group, University of Cambridge. This involved a further two years in Sabangau during 2005-2007 studying orangutan feeding ecology (and processing countless fiddly food items!), in addition to getting sidetracked by research into the trade in fruit bats in the area. After finishing his PhD in 2009 and spending a couple of months working on publishing his PhD findings, he ‘switched sides’ to the Biodiversity and Conservation Research division where, together with Simon, he has assumed the main responsibility for developing and coordinating OuTrop’s ecological monitoring research programme in Sabangau and surrounding areas. Mark is an Honorary Visiting Fellow at the University of Leicester. His main current research interest is developing mechanisms for documenting the effectiveness of different conservation initiatives and management regimes for biodiversity conservation, although he still dips his toes into a variety of other areas, including primate (especially orangutan) behavioural ecology, energetics and conservation; peat-swamp forest conservation issues; the intensity and sustainability of fruit-bat hunting in Kalimantan, forest phenology; seed dispersal; and rapid biodiversity assessments. 

See Mark's publications HERE

Bernat Ripoll - Research Team leader
Bernat Ripoll is the Research Team leader working in Sabangau, responsible of the all field research at camp, coordinating the primate behaviour research, as well as the camera trap and forestry research. He is checking the data entry, working alongside Udin and with each of the research coordinators to ensure they have what they need to do their job. Berni is a Biologist with an MSC in Primatology from Barcelona. In 2007-2008 Berni was the gibbon behaviour field manager for 9 months, locating and following gibbons in the forest, recording details of activity, feeding, vocalising and social behaviour, collecting food item data and obtaining GPS Positions. He has also worked in Argentina, as a research field assistant habituating, locating and following individuals, sampling the feeding and recording social behaviour of two different species of howlermonkey: Alouatta caraya and Alouatta guariba. Now he is starting this new experience enjoying every day being back in the Sabangau Forest.

Joana Aragay - Research Team Leader Assistant and Communications
Joana Aragay is from Barcelona. She studied Biology and has an MSc in Oceanography and Marine Environment Management, focusing on algae taxonomy. She has been working with OuTrop for the past 11 months as a Communications leader and research team leader assistant. During the volunteer season, she worked as a Volunteer Coordinator. Joana is currently in charge of all communications for the project, helping and assisting with research in camp, looking after logistical issues and managing the accounts.

Nick Marchant - Senior Scientist
Nick first joined OuTrop as a volunteer in 2003, and then returned in 2004 as an assistant to Dr Helen Morrogh-Bernard on the orang-utan behaviour project. In the intervening years he has completed an MSc and worked in Ireland as a biodiversity officer and ecological consultant. Over the next year he will be coordinating the biodiversity research, working on some consultancy projects and producing a number of publications.

Marc Dragiewicz - Chief Ornithologist and Biodiversity Expert 
Marc has been exploring and studying tropical forests and coral reefs for over 20 years and holds BS in Biology from Arizona State University.  In between season work as a Field Biologist for National Marine Fisheries Service in Alaska's Bering Sea and the west coast of the USA, Marc visited, lived, worked and studied in Central America, Northwest Amazon, Queensland-Australia, mainland Southeast Asia, and Indonesia, from Borneo to New Guinea. Beginning in 2005, Marc conducted some of the first organized bird surveys in Sabangau, surveying for avian indicators of forest disturbance, during which time he also started compiling a sound library of Sabangau forest sounds, and discovered that our local "fire ant/semut api" is an un-named species, with interesting behaviors that may be unique to Asia.  Since then, Marc has also lead rapid biodiversity surveys with OuTrop at Murung Baru on the River Kahayan, Parigi on the River Katingan, Taratang on the River Mantaya, and in hill dipterocap forest near the upper Barito in Murung Raya.  In addition to acting as OuTrop's adviser on all bird-related issues, he is also taking a lead role in OuTrop's plan to develop a freely-accessible, online encyclopedia of Sabangau flora and fauna that will include (when possible), photos and sound files for every species identified in the area. Marc will finally return to school to study for his masters degree involving Sabangau's birds at Evergreen State in Olympia Washington in Autumn 2012. 

Dave Ehlers Smith - PhD: The Conservation and Ecology of the Red Langur (Presbytis rubicunda) in Sabangau Peat-swamp Forest, Central Kalimantan, Indonesia
The Sabangau Red Langur Research Project (SRLRP) started in October 2009 as the first study of the red langur (Presbytis rubi-cunda) to take place in an ombrogenous peat-swamp forests, and one of only a few ever studies of this primate species. The study is run by husband and wife team David and Yvette Ehlers Smith, and also Supian and Abdul Azis, from the nearby village of Kereng Bangkirai.

Ben Buckley - PhD: The Ranging Behaviour of Male Orangutans in Sabangau Peat-swamp Forest.
The most recent addition to a long line of PhD students from Cambridge University’s Wildlife Research Group working with Outrop in Sabangau.  Having spent a year here between 2007 & 2008 working on the orang-utan behavioural project as the field manager, Ben has returned to Sabangau to carry out his own personal study on an aspect of orangutan behaviour which intrigued, baffled and even (from time to time) tormented him, both at that time and ever since. Often the known orangutan males would disappear from the established study area, then show up again many months later, sometimes returning with a new scar, other times seemingly in much better shape, well fed, strong and healthy. It was these questions that first led him to embark on this research project and focused his interest on the ranging behaviour and dispersal patterns of male orangutans.