Conferences > Keynoter Speaker

Professor and researcher at the Institute of Environmental and Evolutionary Sciences of the Universidad Austral de Chile, and co-founder of the Chilean Orchid Conservation Center (CECORCH). Author of numerous scientific articles, for a decade she has focused her research on the study of orchid mycorrhizae, with the purpose of understanding how environmental conditions affect the relationship between fungi and orchids.

Title of her presentation:
Relationship between orchids and mycorrhizal fungi: Ecology and implications for conservation.

Lou Jost is a physicist and mathematician with a lifelong interest in orchids. He moved to Ecuador in 1994, where he worked as a jungle guide and a wildlife photographer and painter. In 1996 he began a multi-decade study of the distributions of Lepanthes orchids in east-central Ecuador, in order to understand the causes of their local endemism and identify areas that needed protection. In the course of this work, he discovered more than 60 new species of orchids, and also discovered numerous other plant species. During this time, he also worked to advance the mathematics of diversity in ecology, conservation biology, and population genetics. In 2005 he co-founded Fundación EcoMinga and helped create a large system of biological reserves to protect the plants and animals he and his colleagues had discovered. He is currently President of Fundación EcoMinga and a fellow of the Population Biology Foundation.

Title of his presentation:
Challenges of orchid conservation in the tropical Andes

Professor of Biology at the University of Costa Rica and researcher at the Lankester Botanical Garden. He obtained his Ph.D. in botany from the University of Leiden, The Netherlands, with a dissertation entitled “Evolutionary diversification and historical biogeography of Orchidaceae in Costa Rica and Panama”. He is currently a Research Associate at the UCH herbarium of the Universidad Autónoma de Chiriquí, Panama and the Naturalis Biodiversity Center in the Netherlands. His research interests include orchid biology, floristics, genomics, evolution, in situ conservation and digital documentation of plants. Together with Franco Pupulin, he works on the development of digital illustration techniques applied to plant taxonomy and systematics. He also leads floristic projects in Panama and other regions of the Neotropics and participates in The Orchid Tree of Life project with Dr. Oscar A. Pérez-Escobar and collaborators at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. With more than 150 scientific publications, Diego is editor-in-chief of Lankesteriana – International Journal on Orchidology.

Title of his presentation:
Climbing the orchid tree of life: recent advances in phylogenomics and the key role of taxonomy in understanding the Andean orchid diversity

Professor of Biology at the University of Costa Rica and researcher at the Lankester Botanical Garden. He obtained his Ph.D. in botany from the University of Leiden, The Netherlands, with a dissertation entitled “Evolutionary diversification and historical biogeography of Orchidaceae in Costa Rica and Panama”. He is currently a Research Associate at the UCH herbarium of the Universidad Autónoma de Chiriquí, Panama and the Naturalis Biodiversity Center in the Netherlands. His research interests include orchid biology, floristics, genomics, evolution, in situ conservation and digital documentation of plants. Together with Franco Pupulin, he works on the development of digital illustration techniques applied to plant taxonomy and systematics. He also leads floristic projects in Panama and other regions of the Neotropics and participates in The Orchid Tree of Life project with Dr. Oscar A. Pérez-Escobar and collaborators at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. With more than 150 scientific publications, Diego is editor-in-chief of Lankesteriana – International Journal on Orchidology.

Title of his presentation:
How to transition from taxonomic impediment to integrative systematics of Neotropical orchid flora?