Mark has embarked on three years of research funded by the John Templeton Foundation on the life and death of societies across the natural world and what it might tell us about humans.
Mark's current exhibit in the architecture pavilion of the Venice Biennale shows Ba'Aka hunter-gatherers constructing one of their temporary forest shelters in the Congo Basin.
“Mark has the soul of a 19th-century explorer, a wandering naturalist in the tradition of Darwin and Wallace. He spent two years in the rainforests of Asia for his doctoral research, and has since personally explored almost all the other major tropical forests around the world, traveling long distances by boat and on foot along the shadowed trails and climbing up ropes, towers, and ladders into the canopy."
—Twice Pulitzer Prize winner E.O. Wilson
Smithsonian scientist Mark Moffett has discovered new species and behaviors to find stories that make people fall in love with the unexpected in nature. He is a real-life adventurer with awards for writing books and articles and for his photography, as well as the highest honors in exploration.
Mark is active in science, and his 2019 book, The Human Swarm: How Societies Arise, Thrive, and Fall, is a product of his efforts at the interface of anthropology, psychology and sociology. Listen to Mark on TV and radio, or invite him to speak and be intoxicated by his passion. Read a story about his life and new book here.
"THE WORLD-ROVING ZOOLOGIST...A STAR IS BORN"
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
"MOFFETT [IS A] DARING ECO-ADVENTURER"
MARGARET ATWOOD
"[MOFFETT'S BOOK] RANKS WITH THE BEST WORK OF JACQUES COUSTEAU"
BOSTON GLOBE
"I DON'T KNOW WHY YOU'RE STILL ALIVE"
EDWARD O. WILSON
"MOFFETT'S BOOK IS A REMARKABLE INTELLECTUAL ACHIEVEMENT OF SUSTAINED INTENSITY."
QUARTERLY REVIEW OF BIOLOGY
"HIS BOOK IS SO GORGEOUS, I WISH I WAS IN IT."
STEPHEN COLBERT
"MARK IS THE JANE GOODALL OF ANTS."
JANE GOODALL
