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Joanna Burger, a groundbreaking behavioral ecologist who joined Rutgers faculty in 1973, and Michael Gochfeld, a renowned researcher and scholar in occupational and environmental health who joined the faculty of the Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in 1980, have a combined experience at Rutgers that spans more than 100 years. Both have made generous gifts to the university that have endowed professorships in their fields.

Joanna Burger and Michael Gochfeld came to an agreement long ago that has served them well in their 45 years of marriage.

“I cook,” says Burger, who pauses and nods at Gochfeld who is sitting across a conference table from her at the Rutgers School of Environmental and Biological Sciences (SEBS). “He does the dishes.”

Gochfeld smiles. “The secret to dishwashing is this: You have a whole bunch of dirty dishes here,” he says gesturing to an imaginary sink on his left. “Fifteen minutes later, you have a whole bunch of clean dishes here,” he says, gesturing to his right. “It’s a finite problem with a clear solution you can rarely find in science.”

Burger and Gochfeld, who married in 1981, have collaborated on much more than dishwashing. Their tireless research and publications have sought science solutions from ecology to environmental and occupational health issues in research projects that have taken them across New Jersey, throughout the United States, and around the globe. 

Their explorations continue. The day of their 45th anniversary on August 1, they embarked on a research trip together to Australia where Burger continued her study on understanding the complexities of the behaviors of parrots. She is a leading ornithologist, authoring many books both academic and commercial, including A Visual Guide to Birds, which was published by Reader’s Digest, and The Parrot Who Owns Me: The Story of a Relationship, a memoir published by Random House that was translated into seven languages.

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Source: Rutgers Today – November 9, 2026