M. Sanjayan

Who is M. Sanjayan?

M. Sanjayan is an American conservationist and TV personality. He is also referred to as Sanjayan, M.A. Sanjayan or Sanjayan Muttulingam, but generally uses one name, as is sometimes customary in South Asia. He is the science contributor to the Showtime documentary series "Years of Living Dangerously" and was, until recently, the lead scientist at The Nature Conservancy.

Born in Sri Lanka, Sanjayan and his family moved to Sierra Leone in 1972. He moved to the United States to study at the University of Oregon, where he received both a B.S. in biology and a M.S. in ecology. In 1997, he earned a Ph. D in biology from the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Sanjayan joined The Nature Conservancy in 2001. He has received media coverage in Vanity Fair, Outside, Time and The Atlantic, and hosted television programs on The Discovery Channel and the BBC. In 2009, he appeared as a guest on Late Show with David Letterman. He also writes for The Huffington Post.

In May 2012, CBS News named Sanjayan its science and environmental contributor.