Latin-America and Caribbean Scholarship recipients

Matias is a PhD research assistant in the Multidisciplinary Institute of Plant Biology (IMBIV, CONICET-UNC) in Cordoba, Argentina. His research examines how past climatic changes affected species diversification and evolution, evaluating the role of the past cold and dry glacial cycles on the populations' dynamics. His main objective is to generate a transition from phylogeography studies as a largely descriptive discipline to a predictive discipline. To do this, during his PAGES-IAI fellowship, at the Institute of Biology of the Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), under the direction of Dr. Santiago Alejandro Ramírez-Barahona, they will continue a worldwide investigation where they will compare the response to climate changes during the last 3 million years on four organism groups (flowering plants, mammals, birds, and amphibians) in their three levels of biodiversity: genetic diversity, species richness, and phylogenetic diversity, as an integrating and novel proposal to know the role of past climate changes on current patterns of worldwide biodiversity.

Marcos is a biologist and has a postdoc position in the Paleoecology and Palynology lab of Mar del Plata National University, Argentina. His research interest is in Late-Quaternary palaeoclimate, vegetation history and environmental change using multi-proxy analyses of lake sediments. This involves pollen, plant macrofossil and charcoal of lacustrine deposits from Patagonia, South America. He has started working on the DNA optimization methods from pollen and sediment in order to complement the palynological information. He has been part of many fieldworks in Patagonia subantarctic forest and has a large experience on past plant diversity, vegetation dynamics and modern pollen-vegetation relationships in Patagonia. He joined IAI-PAGES Program with the intention of improving new insights into sedimentary DNA analysis with Dra. Barbara Moguel at National Autonomous University of Mexico, who has extensive experience in exploring sedimentary DNA, ancient DNA and working in meta-genomic studies. He enjoys bouldering, hiking and cycling.

Patricia is a 32-year-old Brazilian Biologist and holds a PhD in Environmental Geochemistry, with emphasis on Paleoenvironment, Paleoclimate, and Global Change, from Universidade Federal Fluminense (UFF). She is currently an associate researcher at the Laboratory of Radioecology and Global Change (LARAMG) of the Department of Biophysics and Biometrics at the State University of Rio de Janeiro (UERJ), Brazil. She is also a collaborative researcher at the Laboratory of Observational Oceanography and Paleoceanography (LOOP), at Universidade Federal Fluminense (UFF). Her research interests include a range of interdisciplinary topics such as Paleoclimatology, Paleoceanography, Geochemistry, Palynology. During the fellowship she will work at the Department of Geosciences at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Mexico (UNAM), under the supervision of Professor Dr. Juan Pablo Bernal. The research aims to investigate the anthropogenic effects on climate and hydrology of central Brazil, using Uranium isotopes in speleothems.

Paul is a Research Associate at the Institute of Geology from the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico (UNAM). Originally from Guatemala, obtained his PhD from The University of Arizona and the Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research. He is a forest ecologist and uses carbon and oxygen stable isotopes in tree rings to study the relationships between plant physiology and environmental changes. He is interested in the mechanisms driving carbon and water fluxes on forested regions from seasonal to multi-centennial scales.

Monica is a Forest Engineer with a Master's Degree in Natural Resources and Environment Management. She has developed professional activities in state institutions and non-governmental organizations in the formulation and execution of programs with community development projects and reduction of the vulnerability of livelihoods in peasant communities and indigenous peoples in the face of climate change. She is currently part of the teaching staff of the Forestry Engineering career at the Gabriel René Moreno Autonomous University, dedicating himself to the training of new forestry professionals, teaching subjects such as Wood Anatomy, General and Organic Chemistry. On the other hand, she has developed activities as faculty coordinator of the research area and support the review of research theses. She is an active member of the Forest Stewardship Council FSC International.