As a young man, Alex Dehgan's diverse interests spanned conservation biology, environmental science, law and international trade. He ultimately pursued each, and, inadvertently, prepared for a career in foreign policy. His circuitous route has taken him from Madagascar to Iraq as he engaged people across disciplines as well as borders. See CV

Dehgan graduated from Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, with a double major in zoology and political science. “Either way, I figured I was dealing with animal behaviour,” he says. A trip to Madagascar for an undergraduate course in primate conservation influenced his future career path.

After earning a law degree to “better understand the social fabric that holds society together”, Dehgan decided to return to conservation. He began his PhD at the University of Chicago, and later returned to Madagascar to study lemur populations in fragmented forestlands for his dissertation.

Despite his love of fieldwork, Dehgan decided to enter the policy realm to help conserve tropical forests. An American Association for the Advancement of Science policy fellowship placed him at the US Department of State. Although Dehgan had difficulty finding a niche, Norman Neureiter, the first scientific adviser to the state department, was so impressed with his background that he persuaded Dehgan to continue. “Alex's diverse interests and expertise were exactly what US foreign policy needs,” says Neureiter, now the director of the Center for Science, Technology and Security Policy in Washington DC.

Dehgan was ultimately sent to Iraq to retrain weapons scientists in fields such as ecology and conservation biology. He also led efforts to establish the Iraq International Center for Science and Industry and reconstruct Iraq's Natural History Museum. And he supplied Iraqi scientists with electronic access to hundreds of scientific journals. “Science is one area that cuts across culture to engage people — why not integrate it into diplomacy and development?” he says. He later went to Afghanistan to conduct the first wildlife surveys in 30 years, collaborating with a team of native, yet novice, naturalists.

In his latest role as a senior policy adviser to the US Secretary of State's newest science adviser, Nina Federoff, Dehgan hopes to use science to buoy developing countries' economies and emphasize the relevance of climate change in foreign policy and nation-building strategies.