Juan Gerardo Zuloaga-Villamizar
Co-founder - Director
Carlos Galán
Co-founder
Juan Zuloaga is passionate about wildlife, whether it is tracking jaguars, bird banding migratory birds or monitoring sea turtles. He is also passionate about spatial ecology, conservation and biodiversity science. He is a postdoctoral fellow at McGill University working with Dr. Andrew Gonzalez, developing methods and tools to help identifying Key Biodiversity Areas in Canada.
Juan Zuloaga has a PhD in Biology (University of Ottawa), MES (York University), B.Sc. in Biology (Universidad Nacional de Colombia) and GIS certificate (Ryerson University). He loves outdoors activities, photography and mountain bike. He loves mentoring and volunteering.
Our team that develops tools for quantitative analysis and conservation applications
Laura Melissa Guzman
Computational ecologist - Postdoctoral Liber Ero Fellow, Canada
She is leading the team that develops this initiative.
Originally from Colombia, now I am a postdoctoral Liber ERO researcher at the Department of Biological Sciences at Simon Fraser University, working under the direction of Dr. Elizabeth Elle and Dr. Leithen M'Gonigle.
I did my doctorate in the Zoology Department of the University of British Columbia working with Diane Srivastava.
The general objective of my research is to understand the processes that shape biodiversity at multiple spatial scales, and develop the statistical and software tools necessary to do so.
More info. Check my website
Andrea Paz
PhD Candidate in Ecology, Evolution and Behaviour
City University of New York (CUNY)
I graduated with a BSc in Biology from Universidad de los Andes in Bogotá, Colombia where I studied the phylogeography of the Red-eyed tree frog and how the environment may be influencing the phylogeographic patterns.
During my Master's at the same university I studied the environmental and ecological determinants of population genetic divergence in amphibians of Panama.
I am broadly interested in the patterns of species distributions and the processes behind the generation and persistence of those patterns.
More info. Check my website
Gabriel Muñoz
PhD Candidate Concordia University
I'm a Ph.D. student in Biological Sciences working with the Community Ecology and Biogeography Lab at Concordia University in Montreal-Canada (PI: J.P. Lessard ). I also have a M.Sc. in Ecology and Evolution from the University of Amsterdam (UvA) in The Netherlands where I worked with the Biogeography and Macroecology research group (BIOMAC).
I did my BSc. in Biology with a minor in Environmental management at San Francisco University of Quito (USFQ) in Ecuador.
More info. Check my website
Gonzalo Pinilla Buitrago
PhD Candidate City University of New York
I’m a Ph.D student at University of New York City. I did my BSc in Biology at Universidad Nacional de Colombia. On my bachelor, I analyzed databases of Orinochy mammals and studied the taxonomy of a gender of marsupial in Colombia. I made a master's degree at the Ecology Institute, A.C. (Mexico).
In my PhD, I am going to use functional features and distribution models to predict communities of small mammals in cloudy forests of Mexico.
My interests are the biogeography of small non-flying mammals and ecological niche modeling. I am also one of the Developers of Wallace, an application to make ecological niche models.
More info. Check my website
Andrés Felipe Suárez-Castro
Postdoctoral Fellow Humboldt Institute
I am an ecologist interested in using the knowledge on ecological functioning in conservation and environmental management planning. I received my PhD at The University of Queensland (Australia) and I hold a master’s degree in conservation and wildlife management from the Universidad Nacional de Colombia.
During my research, I have used different biological models to explore diverse research interests such as what drives species distribution patterns, the effect of landscape change on biodiversity and ecosystem services. I have strong statistical and quantitative skills in spatial modelling, and a strong background in ecology, conservation science, natural resource management, ecosystem services and geographical information systems.
Currently, my research focuses on evaluating how to integrate ecological knowledge across multiple spatial scales to maximize biodiversity in human-dominated landscapes.
More info. Check my website
Angela Fuentes-Pardo
Postdoctoral Fellow Uppsala University, Sweden
I am an evolutionary biologist interested in how organisms respond and adapt to environmental and anthropogenic change, and how ecological and evolutionary processes give shape to genetic diversity on spatial and temporal scales.
My goal is to take advantage of the power of genomics, bioinformatics and landscape analysis to address these questions and develop genetic tools that can help report conservation and management efforts.
I am currently a postdoctoral researcher in the group of Leif Anderson at the University of Uppsala, Sweden. I completed my PhD at the University of Dalhousie, Canada, with Professor Daniel E. Ruzzante, and my degree in Biology at the Universidad del Valle, Colombia, with Professor Guillermo Barreto.
More info. Check my website
Flavia Montaño-Centellas
Associate researcher at the Instituto de Ecología, Universidad Mayor de San Andrés in La Paz Bolivia
I am a biologist with a PhD in Wildlife Ecology and Conservation from the University of Florida, where I was part of the Loiselle Lab.
My research interests lie in the processes driving biodiversity at several scales and along environmental gradients, both natural and anthropogenic. In particular, I am interested in the role of species interactions in community assembly and structure, and how these associations change across elevation and gradients of human disturbances.
I majored in Biology from the Universidad Mayor de San Andrés (Bolivia) and focused my undergraduate research on the seed dispersal effectiveness of tyrant flycatchers (Tyrannidae) dispersing mistletoes (Loranthaceae) in Yungas of La Paz. I share my passion for birds, bats and seed dispersal systems, and use them all as model organisms to test ecological hypotheses.
Later on, I pursue a Master in Science in Ecology and Conservation at the Instituto de Ecología – Universidad Mayor de San Andrés. My Master´s research evaluated the potential of Cotapata National Park for specialized tourism and analyzed the ecological and socio-economical conditions for birdwatching programs to be set in the park.
More info. Check my website
Cristian Román-Palacios
Postdoctoral fellow University of California
I was born in the Colombian Andes (Armenia, Quindío) surrounded by stunning landscapes and amazing biodiversity. I received my bachelor's degree from Universidad del Valle, in Cali, Colombia. I am also very much into photography.
I use statistics and bioinformatics to address questions at the interface between ecology and evolution. My research interests are generally related to phylogenetics, systematics, convervation biology, and the effects of climate change on biodiversity at different spatial and taxonomic scales!
I'm working as staff researcher at Aradhna Tripati's lab. I also collaborate with three research groups in Colombia: Biodiversidad animal, GIE, and SEyBA.
More info. Check my website
Luis F. Camacho
Ecologist and Naturalist
Yuber Doqueresana Ortega
Current intern
Bachelor in Biology, Universidad de Los Andes
At the core, I am a naturalist. I use my knowledge on insect biodiversity and natural history, particularly on treehoppers, to test a variety of questions in ecology. The tropical Andes is my home and focus of research to provide a macroecological context to several aspects of my work.
More info. Check my website
Currently, I am in my last semester of my BSc in Biology at Universidad de los Andes (Bogotá, Colombia). My undergraduate research project aims to explain the diversity of Amazonian frogs (Families Centrolenidae and Aromobatidae), finding the main drivers of speciation using genetic, ecological, and geographical data. Providing information that could help with Amazonian species conservation, by searching and corroborating the speciation mechanisms and evolutionary patterns of amphibians. Also, this research will serve as an invitation for scientists to explore The Amazon and find new ways to study it, regardless of the lack of data or the bias towards some Amazonian regions.
My interests are Biogeography, Molecular biology, Herpetology, data science, and Spatial Ecology. I am a beginner programming enthusiast, focusing mainly on R and Python language.
Do you want to be part of out team?
Write us!