Julián Monge-Nájera
Areas of expertise
Ecology and Evolutionary Psychology (for more information, go to www.tropinature.com)
Degrees
M.Sc. in Biology, Universidad de Costa Rica, San Pedro, San José, Costa Rica
Potential student research areas
- Invertebrate ecology and evolution (butterflies, onychophorans)
- Air pollution (using lichens as bioindicators)
- Landscape ecology (mainly urban vegetation)
- Biogeography
- Agricultural pests (mollusks)
- Women under patriarchate, sex work, evolutionary psychology
Biography
Julián Monge-Nájera is a Costa Rican ecologist, scientific editor, educator and photographer born in 1960. For many years he has acted as scientific adviser for the BBC and the National Geographic Society. Regional Editor of the United Nations' Global Environmental Outlook ("GEO Report"). He has been a researcher at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, the National Museum of Costa Rica, the University of Costa Rica and the Distance Education University of Costa Rica. He is author or co-author of 20 books published by several Costa Rican universities, Oxford University, the National Biodiversity Institute (INBio) and Tropical Nature Press. He has written nearly 60 specialized papers about tropical ecology, biogeography and evolution, as well as about applied ecology (pollution and pests) and distance education, in international journals published in Europe, Costa Rica and the USA, including the prestigious Linnean Society of London. He also authored about 50 educational papers, a hundred essays and 30 scientific meeting papers as well as many web pages. He has been editor in chief of Revista de Biología Tropical, Brenesia, Boletín de Biotecnología, Medicina Legal, Paz y Ambiente, Revista Latinoamericana de Derecho Médico y Medicina Legal , and Odontología Actual,as well as editor for several INBio books. He has taught Research Methods, History of Biological Thought, Scientific Photography, General Biology and Bioethics in public and private universities. An invertebrate species has been named in his honor in the Paris Natural History Museum. He lives with his wife, malacologist Zaidett Barrientos, his son Andrés and his daughter Estefanie in Heredia, Costa Rica. His hobbies are nature and figure photography, as well as camping and writing.