Les Kaufman is a marine scientist, naturalist, and conservation biologist who teaches at Boston University. Kaufman’s research focuses on ecosystem-based management in the ocean and great inland waters, particularly coral reef ecology and restoration; as well as climate change, marine food webs, fisheries, and aquaculture. He has worked in South Florida and the Caribbean since 1974, particularly in Belize and Jamaica, with extensive work also in the Indo-Pacific, East Africa, Brazil, and Cambodia.

Kaufman was the first recipient of what became the Pew Fellowship in Marine Conservation and also the Parker-Gentry Award in Conservation. He is a long-time affiliate of Conservation International, The New England Aquarium, and Harvard University’s Museum of Comparative Zoology, and currently serves on the US National Academy of Science and Engineering’s Committee on Ocean Science and Assessment (COSA). He is a co-founder of the Coral Restoration Consortium, a long-time collaborator with the Coral Restoration Foundation, a sometime visiting scientist with Mote Marine Laboratory, and a participating scientist with Mission: Iconic Reefs.