Juan Manuel Guayasamín Ernest

Juan Manuel Guayasamín earned his PhD in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from the University of Kansas (United States). He is the Vice Dean of Research and a senior professor at Universidad San Francisco de Quito (Ecuador). Guayasamín also directs the USFQ Tandayapa Cloud Forest Station in the Tropical Andes. His research focuses on factors promoting speciation in the Andes and the Amazon rainforest. He works on documenting biodiversity, having described dozens of amphibian and reptile species in the Neotropics. Guayasamín investigates the impact of introduced diseases and habitat fragmentation in tropical ecosystems. He collaborates in processes advocating for the rights of nature against extractive activities and has authored three books and over 120 articles in scientific journals.