Jon Paul Rodríguez

Jon Paul Rodríguez "is at the Center for Ecology of the Venezuelan Institute for Scientific Investigations (Instituto Venezolano de Investigaciones Científicas - IVIC), and is the founder and current President of Provita, a Venezuelan conservation NGO established in 1987. Rodríguez is also the Director of the Centro Internacional de Ecología Tropical (CIET), a UNESCO center of excellence based at IVIC. In 2005, he was selected by the Jeune Chambre Internationale, Zulia, as one of Venezuela's Ten Outstanding Young People for his environmental achievements.

"Rodríguez received an undergraduate degree in biology from the Universidad Central de Venezuela in Caracas, working on the use of tiger beetles as indicators of habitat quality in tropical forests. He was awarded a Fullbright Scholarship to pursue a Ph.D. in ecology and evolutionary biology at Princeton University, where he studied patterns of range contraction for declining North American birds. While at Princeton, he became a fellow in the first cohort of the Princeton Environmental Institute Research Initiative in Science and Engineering, leading to a Certificate in Science, Technology and Environmental Policy at Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs.

"His work focuses on understanding patterns in the spatial distribution of threatened species and habitats, as well as the underlying causes of these patterns, and the development of policy guidelines for biodiversity conservation...

"He is author or co-author of more than 70 publications, including peer-reviewed articles in journals such as: Nature, Science, Biodiversity and Conservation, Biological Conservation, Biotropica, Conservation Biology, Ecological Applications, Ecology and Society, and Oryx.

"Jon Paul Rodríguez is Editor of NeoCons, the Neotropical Conservation Biology Bulletin of the Society for Conservation Biology, he serves on the Editorial Board of Diversity and Distributions and Oryx, and is a member of the Editorial Committees of Memoria de la Fundación La Salle de Ciencias Naturales, and Ecología Austral, the journal of the Argentinean Ecological Society. Rodríguez also serves on Venezuela's Ministry of Environment's National Wildlife Council."


 * Project Leader, Wildlife Trust Alliance
 * Whitley Fund for Nature: Award Winners (2003)
 * Editorial Board, Conservation Biology