I can name 6 Latin-American Scientists!

Saludos a todos!

We smack dab in the middle of Latino Heritage Month. Unlike Black History Month or even Women's History Month, this cultural celebration of the talents and contributions of our Latin-American family doesn't get much media attention.

But thanks to the efforts of the Urban Scientist to promote diversity in the sciences, we can all learn a little more.

Over at Science, Education, and Society there is Science Diversity Meme and Challenge. In honor of Latino Heritage Month, can you name 5 Latino or Hispanic Scientists?

Yes, I can! And I can do so because my department has a strong recruitment emphasis in Latin America, so many of my fellow classmates are Latin-American Scientist. But one of the rules is that you can't name anyone from your current institution. Thank goodness some of them have graduated and are now elsewhere, so I get to name them.


1. Letitia Avilés: University of Arizona Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology
Studies the social behavior of spiders.
Contributor of The Evolution of Social Behaviour in Insects and Arachnids

2. Regina Macedo: She studies Animal Behavior of Birds and is an officer in the Animal Behavior Society - which is one of my main professional affiliations. Many of her publications are in Portuguese, but she is also an accomplished wildlife photographer. Departamento de Zoologia, Universidade de Brasília

3. Manuel S Leal: Assistant Professor of Biology, Duke University.

4. Renata Durães: She is one of my former classmates and is now a Post-doctoral fellow at the Center for Tropical Research in Los Angeles, California. You can access one of her publications here.

5. Guillermo Paz y Miño: He is actually my academic sibling - which means we were mentored by the same advisor - in our case we share 2 advisers. He also studies animal behavior (worked with voles, too.) He is also a big proponent of Behavior and Conservation Studies.

6. Iván Jiménez: He is another of my former classmates and the only person on this list who is NOT an Animal Behaviorist. Assistant Curator with Missouri Botanical Garden and studies plants.

Can you name 5 (or more) Latin-American Scientist? Latin-American Heritage Month ends October 15th.

Rules
1. Be sure to name their discipline or field.
2. You can't choose people from your own institution or company. (I may go soft on this one, this time)
3. You can't Google or use the internet to aid in your search. (But if you know someone is a scientist, but not sure what disciple, you can look that up).
4. You can consult textbooks, journals, and class notes.
5. You can ask others to help you brainstorm, but they can't use the internet just to get 5 names fast (see #2).
6. Living and deceased scientists are acceptable.
7. Links to or references about the named scientists are greatly appreciated. Let's share the knowledge, and list as many as you can, even if it isn't five.