Maximilian Maurer

Max is a 2007 graduate of Emory University with a major in Economics and minor concentrations in German and French Studies. In 2008 Max followed his life-long love of wildlife and became a husbandry intern at the Georgia Sea Turtle Center under the direction of Dr. Terry Norton. In addition to his work at the GSTC, Max has also done field work in the Mojave Desert conducting line distance sampling for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Desert Tortoise Recovery Office and has worked in the West Indies collecting data on the nesting of Leatherback Sea Turtles (Dermochelys coriacea) on St. Kitts. He also has experience doing conservation education and public outreach with the Great Basin Institute in Nevada.

In addition to managing the Conservancy’s information technology, Max also supports the Conservancy’s mission by producing much of the various media, including print media, photographs and videos, used by the Conservancy to inform the public about the plight of turtles and tortoises around the world.

Max’s fascination with turtles and tortoises began as a young child growing up off the coast of Georgia on St. Simons Island. At the age of five he was given a Common Box Turtle (Terrapene carolina) that his mother found crossing a road. From this point forward it was all turtles: books, magazines, aquariums, turtle ponds, and of course new species of chelonians in and around his childhood home.