Conservation Genetics in Mammals

Jorge Ortega obtained his doctorate on behavioral ecology under Hector Arita. He later pursued postdoctoral studies at the Smithsonian Institute, where he gained expertise in molecular biology. Currently he is developing projects on eco-immune genetics and genetic conservation of wildlife such as bats, whales and black bears. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the North American Society of Bat Research, of the North American Bat Alliance, and of the IUCN Bat Specialist Group, the Society for the Study of Evolution and the American Society of Mammalogists.Jesus Maldonado obtained his Ph.D. degree in Organismic Biology, Ecology and Evolution at the University of California Los Angeles. He then joined the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute where he has been a Research Geneticist at the Center for Conservation Genomics since 1998. His research applies molecular genetics tools to answer basic and applied questions in conservation and evolutionary biology in mammals. Much of his research involves assessment of genetic variation within and among populations and species to document levels of inbreeding and determine units of evolutionary, taxonomic and conservation significance. He developed a research program that follows an academic model, and most of his projects over the past several years are based on collaborations established with students, postdoctoral fellows and research scientists/curators at the Smithsonian and other academic institutions and conservation communities in Latin American, India, South East Asia and Africa. This allowed him to build a strong conservation genomics program that is international in scope. Beyond theoretical aspects of his research, outcomes from many studies have direct applications to helping address critical conservation issues in a variety of threatened and endangered mammals. He is also interested in studying micro-evolutionary processes that shape genetic variation and evolutionary trajectories, as well as landscape genetics and genomics. During the past 19 years, he has developed and utilized non-invasive genetic techniques and ancient DNA technologies for obtaining reliable information to study many elusive endangered mammal species. Maldonado has over 100 peer reviewed publications in scientific journals including Science, Molecular Ecology, PLoS ONE, Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, Proceedings Royal Society B and has served in the editorial board of several journals including the Journal of Mammalogy, Conservation Genetics, PLos ONE and Therya.