Conner Philson is the Executive Director of UCSB's Natural Reserve System (NRS)—a network of seven field research laboratories across California that supports more than 12,000 researchers and students each year. The UCSB NRS stretches from the Channel Islands, across the California Central Coast, and to the Eastern Sierra Nevada and supports interdisciplinary research across the sciences. Conner is a field biologist, behavioral ecologist, and evolutionary biologist by training, having studied the evolution of social behavior and social groups in the wild. Conner also serves as the President of the Organization of Biological Field Stations (OBFS)—the nonprofit representing 1,200 field stations and natural reserves across the globe—and serves on the Board of Directors for the American Institute of Biological Sciences (AIBS)—a nonprofit promoting the use of science to inform decision-making and advance biology for the benefit of science and society. Conner has a B.S. in Biology from Radford, an M.B.A. Certificate from UC San Diego, and a Ph.D. in Ecology and Evolutionary from UCLA.