Jorge Velásquez is Audubon’s science director for Latin America and the Caribbean, based in Bogotá, Colombia. He holds a Ph.D. in ecology and evolution from Stony Brook University and a B.S. in biology from the National University of Colombia. He has conducted studies on the projected effects of climate change and deforestation on birds in Colombia and North America, and is a co-author of the Red Book of Birds of Colombia.
Velásquez led the development of BioModelos, an online atlas of Colombia's biodiversity, leveraging support from a network of more than 500 experts. He has received the Alejandro Angel Escobar prize for research on the environment and sustainable development, the Humboldt-Caldas medal (awarded by the Colombian Academy of Sciences) for advances in biogeography, and the Ebbe Nielsen Prize (awarded by the Global Biodiversity Information Facility) for developments in biodiversity informatics. Before joining Audubon, he was a Spatial Ecologist for the NASCA program of The Nature Conservancy and a senior researcher at the Humboldt Institute in Colombia. He has also served as a lecturer at several Colombian universities.
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