Mary Burak Chief Scientist at ICF

Dr. Mary Burak is Appointed Chief Scientist at the International Crane Conservation for Africa

At dawn in the wetlands of East Africa, cranes stand majestically against the backdrop of sunlight beaming through the mist. These kinds of landscapes are changing quickly as water regimes shift, grazing pressure increases, and we increasingly subdivide habitats that once seemed indefinite.

For the species that depend on wetlands across the continent, questions about their future increasingly focus on how these kinds of magical places will remain connected. Former Kartzinel Lab postdoc Mary Burak has just taken on a leadership role to connect science, strategy, and action in this domain—she has been appointed Chief Scientist of the International Crane Foundation in Africa.

From data-hungry to conservation impact

During her time in the Kartzinel Lab, Mary emerged as one of our quintessential translational biologists—someone working at the interface of molecular tools and conservation impact. She generated and analyzed molecular data in creative ways that enabled her to answer pressing questions related to the conservation of megafauna across Africa—especially focusing on what large mammals are actually eating using techniques like DNA metabarcoding, as well as how those diets are shaped by habitat fragmentation, human–wildlife interactions, and management decisions that happen every day. In situations where direct observations of animals can be difficult at best, this kind of information is often the missing link between how well we understand real ecosystems and our ability to conserve them.

Scaling science across a continent

In her new role as Chief Scientist, Mary will help shape the scientific trajectory of conservation across Africa, spanning fragmented wetlands, agricultural landscapes, and protected areas that collectively shape the future of multiple crane species—as well as the countless others for which cranes stand as an emblematic flagship species for conservation. She will be coordinating research and monitoring across the continent, integrating ecological data with conservation decision-making, building and strengthening an active network of doers, and directly translating data into results. This is the kind of science we so love to be a part of because it moves the needle for conservation across scales.

Why this transition matters: from lab to leader

Conservation biology is increasingly driven by leaders who can do this kind of bridge work: connecting data with real-world decisions about land, water, and survival. Mary’s trajectory reflects shows how it can happen—those who master the skillsets required to reshape how we think about wildlife are those who can move fluidly between data and the social dimensions of our work that make ecology's hidden patterns and processes apparent enough to act upon. In this way, everything we know about what cranes eat, where they fly, and how they use changing landscapes has the potential to become the basis for more effective conservation planning.

As Mary takes on this new role, she joins a generation of scientists working at the interface of research and impact. From wetlands at sunrise to continent-scale conservation strategy, her work now spans the full spectrum of conservation biology--from data to decision.