Team Bio

Our team unites experienced researchers in the field of evolution and ecology from Universidad de los Andes in Colombia and Universidad San Francisco de Quito with promising undergrad and Master’s students at these institutions with a passion for understanding big questions and for working in the field.

Mateo Davila

Since I was a kid I was fascinated by biology and ecology, constantly fascinated by the different shapes and adaptations organisms had to adapt to their environments.

As an undergrad student at universidad San Francisco de Quito, in Ecuador, I started to understand and fell in love with the evolutionary process and this amazing theory that explained why organisms are the way they are.

I am currently doing my master's degree at universidad De los Andes in Colombia, working on

evolutionary ecology, and trying to understand how different evolutionary pressures in an environment interact to shape the living organisms in it.

Lía Altamirano Ponce

Choosing a career was very difficult for me, but when I finally started studying biology at my university I found out that it allows me to answer many of the questions I have about the world that surrounds us, and I fell in love with every part of it.

I believe that only when we humans understand the connection we have with nature we will start taking care of it as it deserves. The study of evolution enables us to understand these connections, and the different evolutionary paths that have given rise to the numerous species that we know today. Also, this allow us to predict how life could have evolved under determined conditions, and we can hypothesize about how life in other planets could be, which is one of my biggest wonders.

I am currently working on my undergraduate degree in biology at Universidad San Francisco de Quito and I decided to study evolution from a molecular perspective with this gecko.

Diego F. Cisneros-Heredia

Naturalist and researcher. I am passionate about studying the diversity and natural history of species, the factors underlying their patterns of distribution, their shared biogeographic history, and the effects of human activities on species and their habitats, in order to support its long-term conservation. My research has a special emphasis on terrestrial animals, in particular amphibians, reptiles, birds, and spiders (herpetology, ornithology, arachnology). Currently, I am full-time professor at Universidad San Francisco de Quito USFQ, where I am director of the Laboratory of Terrestrial Zoology and Coordinator of Biology.

Daniel Cadena

I am a professor in the Departamento de Ciencias Biológicas at Universidad de los Andes in Bogotá, Colombia. I am broadly interested in the evolution, systematics and evolutionary ecology of vertebrates, with a special focus on Neotropical birds. My research cuts across different ecological, temporal and spatial scales to address evolutionary questions, with studies ranging from genetic, mechanistic and behavioral approaches to understanding adaptation of organisms to their environment, to the role that large-scale evolutionary processes play in establishing spatial patterns of species richness. Main research areas in my lab currently focus on (1) natural selection and adaptation of organismal traits to varying environments and the link between adaptation and speciation along elevational and other environmental gradients, (2) the ecology and evolution of avian migration, (3) comparative phylogeography as a tool to understand the history of Neotropical diversification, and (4) the link between evolutionary/historical processes of speciation, extinction and immigration, and the structure of ecological assemblages and spatial patterns of species diversity.

I am excited about this research project, which will allow us to address central questions in evolution while training students and forging collaborations for research and education with our colleagues in Ecuador.