Pablo “Popi” Garcia-Borboroglu has been around penguins all is life. His grandmother kindled his fascination for the flightless birds, that she had observed along the Patagonian coast lines in southern Argentina. Witnessing an oil spill killing thousands of penguins in the early 1990s, Popi poured countless hours into rehabilitation efforts for oiled birds. After finishing a PhD in biological science at the National University of Comahue in Argentina, he dedicated his career and life to the protection of penguins. He became a researcher at the National Research Council in Argentina (CONICET) and associate professor at the University of Washington and eventually founded the Global Penguin Society. GPS quickly became a leading organization vital for many projects around the world dedicated to protecting penguin species – including New Zealand species.
Popi’s dedication to penguin conservation is being widely recognized. He was a Duke University Global Fellow in Marine Conservation in 2001, received a Pew Fellowship in Marine Conservation in 2009, won the Whitley Award in 2010 and the Segre/WFN Partnership Award in 2014. His work furthermore earned accolades from Sir David Attenborough and the National Geographic Society and was awarded a Rolex Award for Enterprise in 2019. In March 2023, Popi was nominated as finalist of the prestigious Indianapolis Prize, the world’s leading award for animal conservation.