Norman Lim received his PhD in Ecology at the University of California, Davis, in 2015 (major Professor: Doug Kelt; Wildlife, Fish, & Conservation Biology), where he focused on the vertebrate scavengers in Borneo (Southeast Asia) and examined their ecological roles and conservation issues in this highly threatened biodiversity hotspot.

As an unconventional wildlife biologist, he has always taken an interest in understudied animal groups. This started during his undergraduate days where he studied the autecology of the Sunda Colugo (Galeopterus variegatus) and published the first book on the elusive species. Subsequently, he investigated the habitat requirements of the critically endangered Sunda Pangolin (Manis javanica) due to the overwhelming demand for its meat and scales. The focus on vertebrate scavengers is not an exception too: even though scavenging is an integral component of trophic interactions, little is known about this ecosystem function and its consequences.