José Luis Fernández Alonso (born 1959) is a Spanish born

Colombia Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country primarily located in South America with Insular region of Colombia, insular regions in North America. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuel ...

botanist Botany, also called plant science, is the branch of natural science and biology studying plants, especially Plant anatomy, their anatomy, Plant taxonomy, taxonomy, and Plant ecology, ecology. A botanist or plant scientist is a scientist who s ...

. He has published over 20 papers since 1987.

Biography

He was born in Encinas de Esgueva in the

Province of Valladolid Valladolid () is a province of northwest Spain, in the central part of the autonomous community of Castile and León. It has a population of 525,398 across a total of 225 municipalities, an area of , meaning a population density of 64.77 people ...

, Spain. He graduated in the field of Biology at the

Universidad de Salamanca The University of Salamanca () is a public research university in Salamanca, Spain. Founded in 1218 by King Alfonso IX, it is the oldest university in the Hispanic world and the fourth oldest in the world in continuous operation. It ha ...

and worked at the

Royal Botanical Garden of Madrid Royal may refer to: People * Royal (name), a list of people with either the surname or given name * A member of a royal family or royalty Places United States * Royal, Arkansas, an unincorporated community * Royal, Illinois, a village * Royal, ...

, under Santiago Castroviejo, finishing his graduate thesis "Florula of the north west of the Province of Valladolid" in 1985, and his doctoral thesis "Monograph of the neotropical genus Aragoa – Scrophulariaceae family" in 1993. He came into contact with neotropical flora in the Royal Botanical Garden of Madrid through the historical herbaria of Mutis, Ruiz and Pavón e Isern (from Colombia,

Peru Peru, officially the Republic of Peru, is a country in western South America. It is bordered in the north by Ecuador and Colombia, in the east by Brazil, in the southeast by Bolivia, in the south by Chile, and in the south and west by the Pac ...

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...

and

Ecuador Ecuador, officially the Republic of Ecuador, is a country in northwestern South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and the Pacific Ocean on the west. It also includes the Galápagos Province which contain ...

), awaking his interest in the flora of this region and of the family

Scrophulariaceae The Scrophulariaceae are a family of flowering plants, commonly known as the figwort family. The plants are annual and perennial herbs, as well as shrubs. Flowers have bilateral (zygomorphic) or rarely radial (actinomorphic) symmetry. The Scr ...

in particular. He moved to Colombia en 1986 to work as an intern and in 1987-1990 as a Cooperating Botanist at the AECI, in the "Flora Project of the Royal Botanical Expedition of the New Kingdom of Granada", at the Institute of Natural Sciences at the

National University of Colombia The National University of Colombia () is a national public research university in Colombia, with general campuses in Bogotá, Medellín, Manizales and Palmira, and satellite campuses in Leticia, San Andrés, Arauca, Tumaco, and La Paz, ...

. From 1991 to 2009, he was a professor and research officer at the Institute of Natural Sciences, Faculty of Science at the National University of Colombia in

Bogotá Bogotá (, also , , ), officially Bogotá, Distrito Capital, abbreviated Bogotá, D.C., and formerly known as Santa Fe de Bogotá (; ) during the Spanish Imperial period and between 1991 and 2000, is the capital city, capital and largest city ...

, training new biologists in the field of vegetable taxonomy and Colombian flora. At the Institute, he was curator of the National Colombian Herbary from 1996 to 2000 where he collaborated with other regional herbaries from other universities around the country, which contain many of his collections of vascular plants. In 2009 he became lead scientist at the CSIC at the Royal Botanical Garden of Madrid, to work on vegetable biodiversity in tropical areas.

References

* 20th-century Spanish botanists 20th-century Colombian botanists 1959 births Living people University of Salamanca alumni {{Spain-botanist-stub