Merav Ben-David ( he, מירב בן-דוד; born 17 January 1959) is an Israeli-American ecologist, zoologist, and politician who is the Chair of the Department of Zoology and Physiology at the

University of Wyoming The University of Wyoming (UW) is a public land-grant research university in Laramie, Wyoming. It was founded in March 1886, four years before the territory was admitted as the 44th state, and opened in September 1887. The University of Wyomin ...

. She was the Democratic nominee in the

2020 United States Senate election in Wyoming The 2020 United States Senate election in Wyoming was held on November 3, 2020, to elect a member of the United States Senate to represent the State of Wyoming, concurrently with the 2020 U.S. presidential election, as well as other election ...

, losing to former Congresswoman

Cynthia Lummis Cynthia Marie Lummis Wiederspahn ( ; born September 10, 1954) is an American attorney and politician serving as the junior United States senator from Wyoming since 2021. A member of the Republican Party, Lummis served as the U.S representative ...

in the general election. She ran for

State Representative A state legislature is a legislative branch or body of a political subdivision in a federal system. Two federations literally use the term "state legislature": * The legislative branches of each of the fifty state governments of the United Sta ...

from Wyoming's 46th district in

2022 File:2022 collage V1.png, Clockwise, from top left: Road junction at Yamato-Saidaiji Station several hours after the assassination of Shinzo Abe; Anti-government protest in Sri Lanka in front of the Presidential Secretariat; The global monkeyp ...

Early life and education

Ben-David was born to a Jewish family in

Rehovot Rehovot ( he, רְחוֹבוֹת ''Rəḥōvōt'', ar, رحوڤوت ''Reḥūfūt'') is a city in the Central District of Israel, about south of Tel Aviv. In it had a population of . Etymology Israel Belkind, founder of the Bilu moveme ...

, and raised on a farm near

Rishon LeZion Rishon LeZion ( he, רִאשׁוֹן לְצִיּוֹן , ''lit.'' First to Zion, Arabic: راشون لتسيون) is a city in Israel, located along the central Israeli coastal plain south of Tel Aviv. It is part of the Gush Dan metropolitan ...

. She spent two years in the

Israeli Air Force The Israeli Air Force (IAF; he, זְרוֹעַ הָאֲוִיר וְהֶחָלָל, Zroa HaAvir VeHahalal, tl, "Air and Space Arm", commonly known as , ''Kheil HaAvir'', "Air Corps") operates as the aerial warfare branch of the Israel Defense ...

in fulfillment of the country's compulsory military service. Ben-David earned a Bachelor of Science in Biology in 1984, and a Master of Science in 1988 from

Tel Aviv University Tel Aviv University (TAU) ( he, אוּנִיבֶרְסִיטַת תֵּל אָבִיב, ''Universitat Tel Aviv'') is a public research university in Tel Aviv, Israel. With over 30,000 students, it is the largest university in the country. Locate ...

. She spent five years as a safari tour guide in Kenya, before moving to

Alaska Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S ...

, where she studied wildlife management. She earned her PhD from the

University of Alaska Fairbanks The University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF or Alaska) is a public land-grant research university in College, Alaska, a suburb of Fairbanks. It is the flagship campus of the University of Alaska system. UAF was established in 1917 and opened for ...

in 1996.

Career

Ben-David emigrated from Israel to the United States due to worsening job prospects in Israel in the early 1990s as a result of the

1990s post-Soviet aliyah The 1990s post-Soviet aliyah began en masse in the late 1980s when the government of Mikhail Gorbachev opened the borders of the USSR and allowed Jews to leave the country for Israel. Between 1989 and 2006, about 1.6 million Soviet Jews and th ...

. After earning her PhD at the

, Ben-David remained there as an ecologist. She was fascinated by local marine ecosystems, which included

otters Otters are carnivorous mammals in the subfamily Lutrinae. The 13 extant otter species are all semiaquatic, aquatic, or marine, with diets based on fish and invertebrates. Lutrinae is a branch of the Mustelidae family, which also includes ...

mink Mink are dark-colored, semiaquatic, carnivorous mammals of the genera '' Neogale'' and '' Mustela'' and part of the family Mustelidae, which also includes weasels, otters, and ferrets. There are two extant species referred to as "mink": ...

marten A marten is a weasel-like mammal in the genus ''Martes'' within the subfamily Guloninae, in the family Mustelidae. They have bushy tails and large paws with partially retractile claws. The fur varies from yellowish to dark brown, depending on ...

polar bears The polar bear (''Ursus maritimus'') is a hypercarnivorous bear whose native range lies largely within the Arctic Circle, encompassing the Arctic Ocean, its surrounding seas and surrounding land masses. It is the largest extant bear spec ...

, and the

salmon Salmon () is the common name In biology, a common name of a taxon or organism (also known as a vernacular name, English name, colloquial name, country name, popular name, or farmer's name) is a name that is based on the normal language of ...

they fed on. In 2000, Ben-David became an associate professor at the

. She became a full professor in 2010. She has served as the editor-in-chief of ''

Wildlife Monographs The ''Wildlife Monographs'' is a peer-reviewed scientific journal devoted to the ecology of non-domesticated animal species. It is published by John Wiley & Sons on behalf of The Wildlife Society. See also * ''Journal of Wildlife Management The ...

'', succeeding Eric Hellgren in 2017. As of January 2020 she was head of the Department of Zoology and Physiology at the University of Wyoming. Her work mostly centers around carnivores and their behavior in ecosystems. She has published more than 110 scientific papers that analyze the

impact of climate change The effects of climate change impact the physical environment, ecosystems and human societies. The environmental effects of climate change are broad and far-reaching. They affect the water cycle, oceans, sea and land ice (glaciers), sea level ...

, invasive species, logging and pollution on animals, often using innovative research techniques. Among her most-cited works are studies applying

stable isotope analysis Isotope analysis is the identification of isotopic signature, abundance of certain stable isotopes of chemical elements within organic and inorganic compounds. Isotopic analysis can be used to understand the flow of energy through a food web, ...

to animal ecology to document changes in the diet of generalist predators; exploring the impact of flooding, predation, and salmon runs on vegetation in the

Alexander Archipelago The Alexander Archipelago (russian: Архипелаг Александра) is a long archipelago (group of islands) in North America lying off the southeastern coast of Alaska. It contains about 1,100 islands, the tops of submerged coastal ...

; and examining the effects of the 1989

Exxon Valdez oil spill The ''Exxon Valdez'' oil spill occurred in Prince William Sound, Alaska, on March 24, 1989. '' Exxon Valdez'', an oil supertanker owned by Exxon Shipping Company bound for Long Beach, California struck Prince William Sound's Bligh Reef, west ...

on otters in

Prince William Sound Prince William Sound ( Sugpiaq: ''Suungaaciq'') is a sound of the Gulf of Alaska on the south coast of the U.S. state of Alaska. It is located on the east side of the Kenai Peninsula. Its largest port is Valdez, at the southern terminus of the ...

. She has helped to study the effects of the Exxon and BP spills in terms of both immediate and long-term effects. Her work was included in the ''Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Restoration Project Final Report'', which assessed damage and potential for remediation, and was a basis for fining Exxon and BP after their respective oil spills of 1989 and 2010. Ben-David has focused deeply on the river otter (''Lontra canadensis''), examining it in its role as a

sentinel species Sentinel species are organisms, often animals, used to detect risks to humans by providing advance warning of a danger. The terms primarily apply in the context of environmental hazards rather than those from other sources. Some animals can act ...

and also using it as a model for predicting effects of pollutants on the rarer and more difficult to study

sea otter The sea otter (''Enhydra lutris'') is a marine mammal native to the coasts of the northern and eastern North Pacific Ocean. Adult sea otters typically weigh between , making them the heaviest members of the weasel family, but among the sma ...

(''Enhydra lutris''). She has carried out work with Alaskan otters for over 30 years. Her field studies of chemical bioaccumulation have gained international attention. She began studying the impact of human activity and climate change on polar bears in 2001. She has worked for nearly 20 years with

Steven Amstrup Steven C. Amstrup (born February 4, 1950) is an American zoologist who studies bears, especially polar bears. He is the 2012 recipient of the Indianapolis Prize. Early life Steven Amstrup was born in Fargo, North Dakota, where he took an intere ...

to study polar bear ecology in the

Beaufort Sea The Beaufort Sea (; french: Mer de Beaufort, Iñupiaq: ''Taġiuq'') is a marginal sea of the Arctic Ocean, located north of the Northwest Territories, the Yukon, and Alaska, and west of Canada's Arctic islands. The sea is named after Sir ...

and other areas. One of the behavioral patterns she has observed via satellite tracking is that polar bears show high fidelity to the local area of ocean in which they live. As sea ice is thinning, it drifts faster, requiring polar bears to walk farther each day on the ice to retain their position. This increases the energy requirements of the bears while decreasing their available time to hunt. Models project that polar bear populations may collapse by 2080. In 2004, she began another long-term project, studying chipmunks that live in the

Laramie Mountains The Laramie Mountains are a range of moderately high peaks on the eastern edge of the Rocky Mountains in the U.S states of Wyoming and Colorado. The range is the northernmost extension of the line of the ranges along the eastern side of the Rock ...

. One of the findings of Ben-David and her students is that chipmunks are more likely to survive the shorter winters resulting from climate change. Ben-David also studies river otters of the

Powder River Basin The Powder River Basin is a geologic structural basin in southeast Montana and northeast Wyoming, about east to west and north to south, known for its extensive coal reserves. The former hunting grounds of the Oglala Lakota, the area is very ...

, and the effects of nearby oil drilling. Her work has revealed low populations of otters in the New Fork River, compared to areas nearby. Ben-David has received a variety of awards for her work including the Barrett-Hamilton distinguished ecologist award from the

University of Manitoba The University of Manitoba (U of M, UManitoba, or UM) is a Canadian public research university in the province of Manitoba.The Wildlife Society The Wildlife Society (TWS) is an international non-profit association involved in wildlife stewardship through science and education. The Wildlife Society works to improve wildlife conservation in North America by advancing the science of wildli ...

in 2016. She was selected as a Wildlife Fellow of the Wildlife Society in 2017. ‍

Personal life

Ben-David has resided in

Laramie, Wyoming Laramie is a city in and the county seat of Albany County, Wyoming, United States. The population was estimated 32,711 in 2019, making it the third-largest city in Wyoming after Cheyenne and Casper. Located on the Laramie River in southeaste ...

, since 2000, and was

naturalized Naturalization (or naturalisation) is the legal act or process by which a non-citizen of a country may acquire citizenship or nationality of that country. It may be done automatically by a statute, i.e., without any effort on the part of the i ...

as a

United States citizen Citizenship of the United States is a legal status that entails Americans with specific rights, duties, protections, and benefits in the United States. It serves as a foundation of fundamental rights derived from and protected by the Constitut ...

in 2009.

Politics

Ben-David announced her candidacy for the 2020 U.S. Senate election at the 2020 Wyoming Women's March in

Cheyenne, Wyoming Cheyenne ( or ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Wyoming, as well as the county seat of Laramie County, with 65,132 residents, per the 2020 US Census. It is the principal city of the Cheyenne metropolitan statistica ...

, on 18 January 2020. On 18 August 2020, she placed first in a field of six candidates to become the Democratic nominee. Ben-David's platform centered on 'future-proofing' Wyoming's economy through diversification, including public investments in reclaiming old mines, capping oil and gas wells, and building

wildlife crossing Wildlife crossings are structures that allow animals to cross human-made barriers safely. Wildlife crossings may include underpass tunnels or wildlife tunnels, viaducts, and overpasses or green bridges (mainly for large or herd-type animals); ...

s. She lost the general election to Republican

, gaining just 27% of the vote. She was the Democratic nominee for

from Wyoming's 46th district in

, running against Republican incumbent Ocean Andrew.

Electoral history

2020

2022

References

External links

Campaign website
at the

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ben-David, Merav 1959 births 20th-century American women scientists 20th-century American zoologists 21st-century American Jews 21st-century American politicians 21st-century American women politicians Activists from Wyoming American community activists American ecologists American women academics Candidates in the 2020 United States Senate elections Candidates in the 2022 United States elections Israeli emigrants to the United States Israeli women scientists Jewish American people in Wyoming politics Jewish American scientists Jewish biologists Jewish women scientists Living people Naturalized citizens of the United States People from Laramie, Wyoming People from Rehovot Progressivism in the United States Tel Aviv University alumni University of Alaska Fairbanks alumni University of Wyoming faculty Women ecologists Women zoologists Wyoming Democrats