Peter Singer was born in Melbourne, Australia, in 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, and has held several other visiting appointments. Since 1999 he has been Ira W. DeCamp Professor of Bioethics in the University Center for Human Values at Princeton University. From 2005 on, 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. Outside academic life, Peter Singer is a Vice-President of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (UK), a member of the Leadership Council of Oxfam America, and a member of the Advisory Board of GiveWell.net. He has been recently named the world's third most influential contemporary thinker by the Gottlieb Duttweiler Institute. Peter Singer is married, with three daughters and three grandchildren. His recreations, apart from reading and writing, include hiking and surfing.