Mark Stephen Boyce is a Canadian-American ecologist and conservation biologist known for his research in wildlife population ecology, habitat selection, resource selection functions, and the application of mathematical models to wildlife management. He is a professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Alberta, where he holds the Alberta Conservation Association Chair in Fisheries and Wildlife, an endowed chair renewed in 2022. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 2014 and was named a Fellow of The Wildlife Society in 2012.University of Alberta Home PageGoogle Scholar Profile
Career Boyce began his academic career at the University of Wyoming, where he served as an instructor from 1976 to 1977, assistant professor from 1977 to 1981, associate professor from 1981 to 1987, and professor of zoology and physiology from 1987 to 1993. During this period, he was also a visiting professor in the Department of Mathematics from 1984 to 1985 and director of the UW–National Park Service Research Center from 1989 to 1993.Google Scholar Profile
He held a NATO Postdoctoral Research Fellowship at the Animal Ecology Research Group in the Department of Zoology at the University of Oxford from 1982 to 1983. He was a Fulbright Scholar to India from 1991 to 1992 and was affiliated with the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore.
In 1993, Boyce joined the University of Wisconsin–Stevens Point as Vallier Chair of Ecology and Wisconsin Distinguished Professor, positions he held until 1999.
Since 1999, he has been Professor of Ecology at the University of Alberta, where he holds the Alberta Conservation Association Chair in Fisheries and Wildlife.
Research Boyce's research has focused on population ecology, conservation biology, landscape ecology, and wildlife management, with particular emphasis on habitat selection, animal movement, population dynamics, and wildlife conservation. His work on resource selection functions (RSFs) examined how habitat-selection models can be evaluated and applied at different spatial scales.
Boyce co-authored work on step-selection functions and integrated step selection analysis (iSSA), an approach that jointly estimates movement and resource-selection parameters.
Boyce's 1992 review in Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics examined the use of demographic data and mathematical models to assess the likelihood of population persistence over time. Other work has examined concepts and statistical methods used to distinguish resource selection, use, choice, occupancy, and related measures in wildlife studies.
Awards and recognition
Ian McTaggart Cowan Lifetime Achievement Award, 2025, Canadian Section of The Wildlife Society Sand County Society, Yale School of the Environment (2025) Stan Hodgkiss Canadian Outdoorsperson of the Year, Canadian Wildlife Federation (2023) Life Member, The Wildlife Society (2022) J. Gordin Kaplan Award for Research, University of Alberta (2021) C. Hart Merriam Award, 2017, American Society of Mammalogists Miroslaw Romanowski Medal, 2016, Royal Society of Canada Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada TWS Fellow, The Wildlife Society Killam Annual Professorship, 2011–12, University of Alberta Distinguished Professorship, 1993, 1999 University of Wisconsin System, Madison.
Fulbright Scholar to India, 1992, U.S. Educational Foundation in India, Bangalore. N.A.T.O. Postdoctoral Fellowship, 1982–83, National Science Foundation, Univ. Oxford, UK
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