A native of Great Britain and a graduate of the Natural History Illustration Department of the Royal College of Art in London, Stephen Nash served as Scientific Illustrator for Conservation International from 1989 to 2017 producing images for conservation education and biological publications. Prior to this, Nash was part of the World Wildlife Fund - US Primate Program. Now based at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, he is a Visiting Research Associate in the Department of Anatomical Sciences.


Among numerous other awards, in 2004 Stephen Nash received the President’s Award of the American Society of Primatologists (ASP) in recognition of his unique and exceptional contributions to primatology. The President of the ASP, Dr. Jeffrey A. French, cited three major influences Stephen Nash has had on the field of primatology. First, Stephen’s artwork has become “the taxonomic gold standard” for the identification of primates — many of them rarely if ever photographed — and for the comparison of coloration and external features. Second, French noted the power of Stephen’s works to move his audience as “examples of excellence in wildlife art.” And third, Stephen’s myriad illustrations have often served as the centerpiece of major campaigns for conservation education: his primate art has appeared on posters, t-shirts, stickers, buttons, bumper stickers, bookmarks and a variety of other popular and visible media, making his work perhaps the most broadly disseminated and widely recognized of any primate artist.

Finally, in addition to his many other distinctions, he is the only modern primate artist to have had a primate species named for him: Callicebus stephennashi, Stephen Nash’s titi monkey.