{"id":4281,"date":"2016-03-13T16:16:54","date_gmt":"2016-03-13T23:16:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/esa.org\/history\/?p=4281"},"modified":"2022-02-17T18:18:10","modified_gmt":"2022-02-17T18:18:10","slug":"uriarte-maria","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/esa.org\/history\/2016\/03\/uriarte-maria\/","title":{"rendered":"Maria Uriarte, Tropical Forest Ecology"},"content":{"rendered":"

From an \u201cEcologist Directory\u201d maintained by the ESA Education Office about 2004-2011. Profile circa 2005.<\/em>
\nProfessor, Department of Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Biology<\/a>, Columbia University, New York<\/p>\n

Education<\/h3>\n

Ph.D. Cornell University
\nM.S. Yale School of Forestry
\nDr. Uriarte\u2019s research focuses on tropical forest dynamics and landscape ecology.<\/p>\n

Ecologist Profile<\/h3>\n

When did you get interested in ecology? Who was most influential in guiding you into ecology?<\/strong>
\nIn 1989, I left the US to join the Peace Corps in The Gambia, West Africa. My assignment there was to work with women\u2019s agricultural cooperatives to improve vegetable production.<\/p>\n

\"Portrait

Dr. Maria Uriarte<\/p><\/div>\n

Much of my work involved getting funds and personnel to build wells that could access the 30-meter water table. Once built, the major challenge was to negotiate community access to these wells in a completely foreign cultural and socioeconomic context. These experiences impressed on me the importance of people- environment relationships and the futility of development efforts that did not consider the cultural context in which they operated.
\nHow did you learn about ecological careers\u2014what is your position title now?<\/strong>
\nI just started a position as an assistant professor at Columbia University in the newly-created Department of Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Biology. The program has a strong policy component and I am excited about embracing a more interdisciplinary vision of ecology.
\nDescribe your route to a career in (or using) ecology. What challenges did you need to overcome? What was your training, and what positions have you held?<\/strong>
\nMy first challenge was to learn written scientific English. Writing is always a challenge. Coming to ecology from outside the field was also demanding since I lacked basic training in biology. Finally, learning quantitative tools during my postdoctoral training was a difficult but rewarding challenge.
\nWhat key advice would you offer a student today?<\/strong>
\nBe broad-minded and always keep the \u201cbig picture\u201d in sight. Addressing the ecological challenges that we face today will require interdisciplinary teams and a broad set of skills including experiments, observations, models and plain common sense. Know who you are. Find a project you like but don\u2019t let it define you. Keep learning new things and get involved in projects that will challenge you to think broadly.
\n
\nWhat advice do you have for communicating ecology to diverse audiences? <\/strong>
\nKeep it simple without being patronizing and always put yourself in your audience\u2019s shoes. New media technologies are powerful tools for effective communication. Embrace them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From an \u201cEcologist Directory\u201d maintained by the ESA Education Office about 2004-2011. Profile circa 2005. Professor, Department of Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Biology, Columbia University, New York Education Ph.D. Cornell University M.S. Yale School of Forestry Dr. Uriarte\u2019s research focuses on tropical forest dynamics and landscape ecology. Ecologist Profile When did you get interested in ecology? Who was most influential…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11104,"featured_media":4282,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[151,155,165,174,175],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4281","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-biographies","category-ecologist-directory","category-personal-accounts","category-queer-trans-disabled-and-racialized","category-women-in-ecology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4281","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11104"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4281"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4281\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4282"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4281"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4281"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4281"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}