Neil Burgess completed a B.Sc. in Botany and a Ph.D. in Palaeobotany (evolution of the earliest land plants), after which he started work at the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. He worked on reserves and in the headquarters in Sandy on the management of habitats for birds. During this time the main work on the first edition of Bird Census Techniques was completed. In 1990 he became more involved with African conservation and biodiversity research through project management in the Africa Section of the International Department of the RSPB, and as Research Director of the Society for Environmental Exploration. Most of his work concentrated on tropical forest and wetland habitats in Africa and Southeast Asia, including ornithological surveys. He moved to the Danish Center for Tropical Biodiversity at the University of Copenhagen in 1994 to coordinate and develop programs aiming to map the distribution of biodiversity in Africa. He also worked as International Project Development Officer for the Danish Ornithological Society in 1995-1998. He has maintained an interest in ornithological survey work in Europe, but has moved increasingly into project management work in the tropics and Eastern Europe mainly through setting up and managing programs to assess biodiversity values and to undertake practical conservation actions.
