In honor of Hispanic Heritage Month, we’re having a month-long assortment centered on our work in Latin America. This week, we’re shining a spotlight on a couple of of our St. Louis-based researchers – people dedicated to unraveling the secrets and techniques and methods of Latin American crops and ecosystems.
A Century-Prolonged Quest
The journey of our Latin American evaluation is every deep and intensive, spanning over 100 years. It began as early expeditions inside the 1900s, the place the primary goal was to hunt distinctive orchids that will very properly be dropped at St. Louis to enhance the Yard’s residing collections. These initiatives grew, notably from the 1970’s to the 2000’s, and the Yard grew to grow to be a hub for botanical evaluation in Latin America with dozens of staff and duties full of life all through the continent. Now, our mission is evolving as quickly as as soon as extra as we purpose to utilize our expertise and efforts to know, defend, and restore crops and vital ecosystems.
The St. Louis Evaluation Employees
The Yard’s Latin America Division in St. Louis is a reference for botanical evaluation, boasting 13 members. These embrace a couple of of the globe’s most acknowledged plant consultants, answerable for locating quite a few plant species. We’re notably happy with our 4 Latin American researchers: Dr. Carmen Ulloa, Dr. Rosa Ortiz, Dr. Mónica Carlsen and Dr. Sebastián Tello. They’re not merely staff; they’re our bridge to the real spirit of Latin American botany.
Zooming in on Our Latin American Researchers
Dr. Carmen Ulloa hails from Ecuador nonetheless has been a big part of the Yard for over three a very long time. Carmen’s expertise lies inside the distinctive alpine ecosystems atop the Andean mountains known as the Páramos. She’s moreover deeply involved in studying melastomes – the princes flower plant family, which is widespread in Latin America. In addition to, Carmen is essential an daring problem, the Flora Mesoamericana, which objectives to doc plant species from Southern Mexico by the use of Central America to Panama.
Dr. Rosa Ortiz, initially from Peru, joined the Yard in 1993. Rosa is a specialist in tropical crops, notably the moonseed family. These crops aren’t solely quite a few in Latin America however as well as have fascinating makes use of, akin to turning them into poison for trying darts by indigenous groups. Aside from, Rosa is passionate about delving deep into the plant biodiversity of areas like Colombia and Peru.
Dr. Mónica Carlsen is our go-to explicit particular person on Aroids, a vast and totally different plant family. Initially from Venezuela, Mónica pursued her doctoral analysis on the School of Missouri in St. Louis. She later returned to the Yard to extra evaluation and along with spearhead tutorial initiatives. Aside from her evaluation, an enormous part of Mónica’s mission is mentoring. Yearly, she guides a batch of students by the use of intensive summer time season evaluation packages, guaranteeing that the next period of plant scientists will get the perfect teaching correct proper right here in St. Louis.
Dr. Juan Carlos Penagos, from Colombia, focuses on studying the variability and evolution of the avocado plant family all through forests in Latin America. As a postdoc on the Coronary heart for Conservation and Sustainable Enchancment, he collaborates intently with our Latin America workforce. His work accommodates determining new species and using DNA data to reconstruct the evolutionary relationships amongst species. Juan Carlos may be inquisitive about pure hybridization – that is when two completely totally different species deal with to breed with one another. It’s a phenomenon which may be very poorly understood, nonetheless which can cowl very important insights into why there are so many species in some groups of crops, notably in tropical areas.
Dr. Sebastián Tello, at current on the helm of the Latin America Division, has been with the Yard for a decade. An ecologist from Ecuador, Sebastián’s work has these days centered in Bolivia, notably by the use of the noteworthy Madidi Problem to find the plant vary inside the Bolivian Andes. However, his evaluation pursuits span all through the Andean space, delving into forest capabilities and their response to environmental shifts. In his administration place, Sebastián is set to highlight the basic evaluation and legacy of the Yard’s work on Latin America and to align its expertise and evaluation with the targets of conserving and restoring nature for the advantage of biodiversity and people.
Many various staff from completely totally different corners of the Yard work in Latin America and contribute to the yard’s mission inside the space. The connection between the Yard and botanical evaluation and conservation in Latin America runs deep, has an illustrious earlier and a vivid future.
Remaining Concepts
Our St. Louis workforce embodies passion, dedication, and expertise. Their contributions are a testament to our unwavering dedication to Latin American botany. As Hispanic Heritage Month continues, let’s have enjoyable the people who make our mission come alive.