Peter Singer was born in Melbourne, Australia, on July 6, 1946, and educated at the University of Melbourne and the University of Oxford. He has taught at the University of Oxford, La Trobe University, and Monash University. Since 1999, he has been Ira W. DeCamp Professor of Bioethics in the University Center for Human Values at Princeton University. From 2005, he has also held the part-time position of Laureate Professor at the University of Melbourne, in the Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics.

Peter Singer first became well-known internationally after the publication of Animal Liberation in 1975. Since then, he has written, co-authored, edited, or co-edited more than 40 other books, including Practical Ethics; The Expanding Circle; How Are We to Live?, Rethinking Life and Death, The Ethics of What We Eat (with Jim Mason) and, most recently, The Life You Can Save. His works have appeared in more than 20 languages. He is the author of the major article on Ethics in the current edition of the Encylopedia Britannica.

Two collections of Singer’s writings have been published: Writings on an Ethical Life, which he edited, and Unsanctifying Human Life, edited by Helga Kuhse, and also two collections of critical essays, with responses: Singer and Critics, edited by Dale Jamieson, and Peter Singer Under Fire, edited by Jeffrey Schaler.

In 2005, Time magazine named Peter Singer one of the 100 most influential people in the world and, in 2011, Time included Animal Liberation on its “All-Time” list of the 100 best nonfiction books published in English since the magazine began in 1923. In 2012, Singer was made a Companion of the Order of Australia, the nation’s highest civic honor.

Peter Singer is married, with three daughters and three grandchildren.

Jim Mason and Peter Singer