-Magdalen Lindeberg

Camila Martinez, recent PhD in the SIPS Plant Biology Section, was awarded second place for outstanding student oral presentation at the 2019 Humboldt 250 Meeting held August 5 – 9 in Quito Ecuador. Martinez’s presentation, co-authored by her thesis advisor Bill Crepet and others, was entitled Neogene climate, vegetation, and elevation history of the Central Andean Plateau and described impact of geological changes 2500 myo on the ecosystem of that region, using data from the fossil record. Insights on past events such as these can be valuable aids in predicting effects of future climate change on regional biomes.

Martinez, a native of Colombia, completed her PhD in 2019 with a thesis entitled Two Cenozoic floras from south America, paleoclimatic and paloealtimetry inferences. She was awarded a Smithsonian Institute Fellowship in 2019 and is currently working at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) in Panama. Sponsored by the International Biogeography Society and the Red Latinamericana para el Estudio de la Biogeografia Neotropical, Humboldt 250 celebrated the 250th anniversary of the birth and legacy of Alexander von Humboldt.