Jose is biologist from Universidad Latina de Costa Rica, MSc in Tropical forests and biodiversity management and conservation from CATIE and PhD in Sciences from UNAM-Mexico. He currently works as Professor for Universidad Autónoma Metroplitana (Mexico) and for ProCAT Colombia/Internacional. His work is related with conservation planning and sound ecological research applied to conservation in numerous countries of Latin America. He is founder and editor in chief for the Latin American Journal of Conservation and Mammalogy Notes, and is E-i-c for Small Carnivore Conservation. Currently he serves as Co-chair of the IUCN/SSC Small Canrnivore Specialist Group and Board Member for the Colombian Association of Zoology and was recently awarded the Future for Nature Award from the Netherlands, the William T Hornaday Award and Oliver P. Pearson award from the American Society of Mammalogists and the Amigos Award from the Colombian Academy of Sciences.

I am Mexican-Colombian. I have a B.Sc. in Biology (University of Antioquia, Colombia) and a PhD in Conservation Biology (University of New Orleans, USA). I am a professor at the Biology Institute of University of Antioquia (Colombia). I work on population biology of plants and species conservation, focusing on Cycads (Zamia) in South America.