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Professor of Geography
Director, USFQ Institute of Geography Co-Director, Galapagos Science Center - GSC Universidad San Francisco de Quito - USFQ Ecuador |
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| Curriculum Vitae |
Dr. Carlos F. Mena is the Founding Director of the USFQ Institute of Geography and founding Co-Director of the Galapagos Science Center. Carlos F. Mena is Professor of Geography in the School of Biological and Environmental Sciences at USFQ and Adjunct Professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Carlos F. Mena obtained his Ph.D. in Geography from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (USA) and has been doing research in the Amazon and Galapagos Islands for more than 20 years.
Since 2010, Carlos F. Mena co- created, developed, and lead the Galapagos Science Center (GSC). The GSC is an interdisciplinary research center in San Cristobal Island in the Galapagos Archipelago for the advancement of science, conservation and sustainable development of the Galapagos and Ecuador. The GSC is an administrative, logistic, and scientific structure designed to promote research, education, and community development in the Galapagos Islands. The GSC dedicated in 2011 its own building (~2200m2) that houses four unique laboratories: terrestrial ecology, marine ecology, micro- and molecular-biology, spatial analysis, and has spaces for community events and classrooms. GSC develops more than 60 projects per year, working with more than 40 principal investigators, and has a permanent staff of 16 people. Mena also co-created and manage the University Consortium for Galapagos Research, a network of international universities, which develop research projects in the Galapagos Islands through the Galapagos Science Center.
The USFQ Institute of Geography (USFQ-IG), created by Carlos F. Mena in 2016, is an interdisciplinary space at the Universidad San Francisco de Quito to foster geographic research and education in Ecuador. It employs 8 full time spatial analysts and encompasses 14 projects developed in the Ecuadorian and Peruvian Amazon and Choco region of Ecuador.
Carlos F. Mena has won several prestigious academic honors, including, the Earth Systems Science Fellowship from the US National Aeronautics Space Administration (NASA), the pre-Doctoral Traineeship from the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) Fogarty International Center, the Anne U. White Fund Grant from the Association of American Geographers (AAG). Mena is co-editor of the book series “Social and Ecological Interactions in the Galapagos Islands”, published by Springer Science and Business Media with five volumes in print. Carlos F. Mena has authored and co-authored more than 60 peer review publications (papers and book chapters) and has co-edited three books.
Through a portfolio of research projects, his research has covered topics of coupled human-environment systems, demography and environment, remote sensing and geographic information science, complex adaptive systems, population geography, conservation of tropical forests, political ecology, citizen science, climate change and community development. Carlos Mena’s research has been funded by organizations, such as, USAID, US Department of State, the US National Academy of Sciences and International Organizations, such as the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO), the Inter-American Institute for Global Change, the Ecuadorian Government, among others. Currently, Mena has been awarded a grant to assemble a Latin American HUB to study the second order effects of the COVID19 pandemics, funded by the US State Department and the Association of American Geographers.
Since 2010, Carlos F. Mena co- created, developed, and lead the Galapagos Science Center (GSC). The GSC is an interdisciplinary research center in San Cristobal Island in the Galapagos Archipelago for the advancement of science, conservation and sustainable development of the Galapagos and Ecuador. The GSC is an administrative, logistic, and scientific structure designed to promote research, education, and community development in the Galapagos Islands. The GSC dedicated in 2011 its own building (~2200m2) that houses four unique laboratories: terrestrial ecology, marine ecology, micro- and molecular-biology, spatial analysis, and has spaces for community events and classrooms. GSC develops more than 60 projects per year, working with more than 40 principal investigators, and has a permanent staff of 16 people. Mena also co-created and manage the University Consortium for Galapagos Research, a network of international universities, which develop research projects in the Galapagos Islands through the Galapagos Science Center.
The USFQ Institute of Geography (USFQ-IG), created by Carlos F. Mena in 2016, is an interdisciplinary space at the Universidad San Francisco de Quito to foster geographic research and education in Ecuador. It employs 8 full time spatial analysts and encompasses 14 projects developed in the Ecuadorian and Peruvian Amazon and Choco region of Ecuador.
Carlos F. Mena has won several prestigious academic honors, including, the Earth Systems Science Fellowship from the US National Aeronautics Space Administration (NASA), the pre-Doctoral Traineeship from the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) Fogarty International Center, the Anne U. White Fund Grant from the Association of American Geographers (AAG). Mena is co-editor of the book series “Social and Ecological Interactions in the Galapagos Islands”, published by Springer Science and Business Media with five volumes in print. Carlos F. Mena has authored and co-authored more than 60 peer review publications (papers and book chapters) and has co-edited three books.
Through a portfolio of research projects, his research has covered topics of coupled human-environment systems, demography and environment, remote sensing and geographic information science, complex adaptive systems, population geography, conservation of tropical forests, political ecology, citizen science, climate change and community development. Carlos Mena’s research has been funded by organizations, such as, USAID, US Department of State, the US National Academy of Sciences and International Organizations, such as the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO), the Inter-American Institute for Global Change, the Ecuadorian Government, among others. Currently, Mena has been awarded a grant to assemble a Latin American HUB to study the second order effects of the COVID19 pandemics, funded by the US State Department and the Association of American Geographers.
