Eugenio Gonzalez Jr., OTS Resident Faculty Mr. Gonzalez is a forester that has done pioneering work on using little known tropical tree species for the restoration of abandoned pasture in the Atlantic lowland of Costa Rica. He holds a Ph.D. in Forestry from Texas A &M University where he graduated in 1996 and since them he has been the director of Palo Verde Biological Station located in the heart of the Tempisque river basin. He has participated on multiple meetings and seminars on the definition of policies and management plans for the conservation and restoration of wetlands and dry forests as well. He is currently a member of the National Commission for Forestry Certification of Costa Rica and has also served on a series of committees regarding forest and land restoration. Research interests: Forest ecology, forest and land restoration, forest management, forestry of native tropical tree species, soil-plant relationships.

 

Philippe Hensel, OTS Faculty Philippe Hensel, PhD is a principal scientist with Johnson Controls World Services at the USGS National Wetland Research Center in Lafayette, Louisiana, where he is investigating the effects of Hurricane Mitch in the coastal mangrove communities of Central America. In 1999, he was an instructor in the OTS Undergraduate Student Program in Costa Rica, where he has used inquiry-based instruction to help students think critically about the complex issues surrounding management of the natural environment. His specialization is in estuarine and deltaic ecosystems, and he has applied knowledge gained studying these esystems throughout the world to the environment of Costa Rica. His current investigation in the mangroves of the Tempisque River has revealed large changes in wetland structure, due to the intervention of man, which have been tied to decreases in bird populations and other indicators of ecosystem quality in and around Palo Verde National Park.

 

Tom Langen, OTS Faculty Tom Langen, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biology at Clarkson University. His research focuses on the behavior, ecology, and conservation of birds. Dr. Langen teaches a variety of courses at Clarkson University, including Ecology, Conservation Biology, Animal Behavior, and Environmental Biology for Non-majors. He has been a lecturer at the Universities of California at San Diego and Los Angeles, and for the University of California Education Abroad Program in Costa Rica, and has served as a co-coordinator for an OTS graduate course in tropical biology. He has conducted professional development for secondary science teachers through the UCLA science programs in the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies. He has also conducted development work in West Africa. This is his second year with the WWNFF CORE Institute in Environmental Education.

 

Nicole Turner Mojica, OTS Resident Biologist Nicole is a native American from Maryland who came to Costa Rica to study Tropical Biology at the Universidad Nacional, where she got a B.Sc. in Biology in 1999. As a student, she participated in several professional meetings regarding management and conservation of natural resources, being a student volunteer at the International Meeting held in Costa Rica by the Association for Tropical Biology and the Organization for Tropical Studies 1997. Once graduated, she took the position as Resident Biologist at Marenco Biological Reserve in Osa, Costa Rica. Nicole joined the Palo Verde Biological Station late last year, where she has been in charge of the coordination of academic groups.

 

Evan Notman, OTS Faculty Evan is a tropical ecologist.  He just completed a one-year teaching assignment with the Organization for Tropical Studies.  He taught in OTS’undergraduate study abroad program, training students from across the United States.  His research interests are focused upon tropical forest ecology and conservation.  His investigations include identifying the role that plant and animal interactions play in both natural and human disturbed forest ecosystems.  Having studied in the Peruvian Amazon basin, he enjoys examining how animals influence forest regeneration by eating and dispersing seeds.  His case studies abroad are the basis for his PhD which will be granted in June of 2000 by the Miami University of Ohio.

 

Rodolfo Quirós - OTS Resident Biologist Rodolfo's training has been in general biology with emphasis in botany and with special interest in plant ecology during his studies at the University of Costa Rica and at Iowa State University. He has participated in research projects about paramo biology and mangrove swamps ecology, and has done research on the floras of the Caño Island (in the Southern Pacific of Costa Rica) and of the Saint John Island (U.S. Virgin Islands). The latter two have yielded scientific publications. His practical experience has been with environmental education. He has been environmental educator and later the first director of the Tropical Youth Center of the Neotropica Foundation on the Osa Peninsula, where he contributed to develop the working programs and educational materials and activities for environmental camps and workshops for grade and secondary school students and teachers at regional and national levels, and worked on the basics of the development of international camps and workshops. Later on, he went to work as the technical coordinator for the parataxonomists of the National Biodiversity Institute (INBio) at a national level, being in charge of the training and technical and administrative support of the field work in various national parks and reserves, and supporting the field work of national and international researchers. Rodolfo's main responsibilities as resident biologist are to provide tours and lectures to natural history visitors and to students in OTS field courses, and he shares the responsibilities of lab and library management with Director Gómez.

 

Jose Maria Rodriquez, Lecturer Sr. Rodríguez has been the coordinator of the Environmental Policy Program for the Organization for Tropical Studies since 1991; he was the OTS academic coordinator from 1989 to 1991. Based in OTS' Costa Rica office, he develops, organizes and provides instruction for OTS environmental policy and natural resource management courses. Presently, these training events are offered to North American and Latin American decision makers, Central American corporate executives and other leaders of Central America, and Latin American wildland managers. Sr. Rodríguez has been a Professor of Wildland Management in the Department of Geography at the Universidad de Costa Rica and at the Universidad Latinoamericana de Ciencia y Tecnología, as well as a guest speaker for numerous university courses. Before joining OTS, Sr. Rodríguez held several senior positions, including Director, for 12 years with the Servicio de Parques Nacionales de Costa Rica (Costa Rica National Parks Service.) He also served as an achitect and planner for the Instituto Costarricense de Turismo (Costa Rican Board of Tourism) and other agencies in his country. Sr. Rodríguez earned a degree in Architecture from Politecnico di Milano, Italy, in 1968, and pursued graduate studies in Natural Resources at the University of Michigan in 1984-1985.

 

David Silverberg, WWNFF Faculty David Scott Silverberg (B.Sc., Western Washington University, M.Sc., Western Washington University, Ph.D., MIT, 1990) is an earth scientist and environmental educator working in universities, non-government not-for-profits and government agencies for 25 years.  He was the executive director of The Center for Field Research – Earthwatch, helped launch the Americorps program as Associate Director for Environmental Programs and was founding Field Director for The Center for Coastal Studies-School for Field Studies in coastal British Columbia.  David has taught environmental sciences at the University of Connecticut, Boston University, and Colorado State College.  At the Colorado Outward Bound School, he supervised environmental training of instructors and edited their instructor publication resources.  He has worked in 75 countries and specializes in environmental education start-ups, including most recently the Woodrow Wilson Foundation’s Costa Rica program and the Institute for Village Studies’ Bhutan program.  He lives in Taos, New Mexico, where he is executive director of the Taos Environmental Learning Institute.

 

Carol Zucca, WWNFF Faculty Carol Zucca has taught a Forest Ecology class for many years at Big Trees State Park in California as well as Biology and Chemistry.  She has a cooperative agreement with the Park Ecologist to allow students to conduct real-life research on problems that the Park cannot afford to study. Students learn camping, mapping and compass skills, and design/conduct research projects regarding issues such as prescribed burn, meadow restoration and comparative insect abundance before and after a fire.  She also spent 8 years conducting research in sub-tropical vegetation analysis in both Puerto Rico and Florida.  She has a B.S. in Biology with a minor in Chemistry, a M.S. in Ecology and is ABD working towards a Ph.D. in Math/Science Education. She is also fluent in Spanish.