Stephan holds a doctorate in behavioural ecology from the University of Oxford, and has carried out ecological research in many parts of the world, including Venezuela (where he has born) and Costa Rica.  He has been the resident ecologist and tutor at Schumacher College, Dartington, since its inception in 1991. He is also the coordinator of the college’s highly successful MSc in Holistic Science, a degree offered in partnership with the University of Plymouth. He has worked and taught alongside many of the world’s leading ecological activists, thinkers and writers, including Arne Naess, Fritjof Capra, Lynn Margulis, Brian Goodwin and James Lovelock, with whom he has collaborated scientifically for many years.   In April 2007, Stephan was appointed as the co-holder, with James Lovelock, of the Arne Naess Chair in Global Justice and the Environment at the University of Oslo.  Stephan is author of Animate Earth: Science, Intuition and Gaia, his first book, published in March 2006.