Open WL Archief (OWA)

My interest in copepods started in the early 1980s while working on freshwater plankton. In the early 1990s I started zooplankton studies in the Mexican Caribbean, and then, I came accross my first monstrilloid copepod; this encounter would mark my view and awe for copepods and realized that this peculiar group was poorly understood. I described my first monstrilloid species back in 1993. Monstrilloids then became a focus of my research for the next three decades, but I was also able to keet an active interest in other orders as well, including marine and freshwater free-living and symbiotic forms. I've always enjoyed the idea of working on a variety of taxa, but monstrilloids are so special, a resilient group with a complex life cycle that involves a successful transit across challenging habitats to survive: planktonic, endoparasitic-benthic, and then planktonic again, true warriors among copepods. My interest and work on monstrilloids currently represents the description or redescription of nearly 50% of all known species and 3 /8 monstrilloid genera. Before my retirement I intend to keep discovering the diversity of this order and being a WoRMS editor motivates me to continue on this path. Also, I have made efforts to promote the study of copepods with my students.

I have served the World Association of Copepodologists since 1996, as General Secretary for 15 years, until 2011 when I organized the 11th Conference on Copepoda in Mexico (as Local Secretary). In 2014, I had the honor to be elected the first LatinAmerican president of the WAC until 2017 when I kept participating in the WAC as Past-President (2017-2020).