Rodrigo Medellin

Project Leader, Wildlife Trust Alliance

Dr. Rodrigo Medellin has studied the ecology and conservation of mammals in Mexico for 25 years. In 1994 he founded and today heads the Program for the Conservation of Migratory Bats, a partnership between the Institute of Ecology, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, BIOCONCIENCIA, and Wildlife Trust

He has served as President of the Mexican Society of Mammalogists, Chair of the Committee for International Relations, and Chair the Latin American Fellowship Committee of the American Society of Mammalogists. He was a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of Bat Conservation International for ten years, and is a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Lubee Bat Conservancy, and the La Selva Biological Station of OTS in Costa Rica.

Medellin was head of the Department of Biodiversity and Ecology in the Institute of Ecology of the National University of Mexico until 2006. He continues to be Professor of Ecology where he has taught conservation biology and community ecology for over 15 years at the graduate and undergraduate level and directed over 25 theses and dissertations. He also represents Mexico before the CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna) Animals Committee. In 2002 he was elected Representative of North America and also Vice Chair of the same Committee He was reelected for the same positions in 2004.

He is a member of the Species Survival Commission of IUCN, where he Co-Chairs the Bat Specialists Group. He is also Adjunct Professor at Columbia University in New York and Associate Researcher at the American Museum of Natural History and the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum. Rodrigo is currently an Associate Editor for the journals Conservation Biology, Journal of Mammalogy, ORYX, and Acta Chiropterologica.

Rodrigo Medellin has produced more than 100 publications, including over 50 scientific papers in international journals, and fifteen books and book chapters on bat ecology and conservation, mammal diversity analyses and conservation of large mammals.

Recent accolades:

• November 2004: Received the 2004 National Nature Conservation Award from Mexico's President Vicente Fox.
• October 2004: Received the highest honor from the North American Symposium on Bat Research - the Gerrit S. Miller, Jr. Award - given to persons "in recognition of outstanding service and contribution to the field of chiropteran biology."
• April 2004: Received the prestigious Whitley Award for International Nature Conservation from Her Royal Highness, Princess Anne of England.
• Designated Co-Chair of the Chiroptera Specialists Group of IUCN, February, 2006.