We are thrilled to announce the unanimous election of María Cecilia Londoño (Humboldt Institute) as co-Chair elect of GEO BON by its Implementation Committee. María Cecilia is an integral part of the GEO BON community and has been for many years. She has led the Colombia BON successfully implementing GEOBON principles at the national level, and she is a driving force in the development of the BON´s through the BON development group and the BON-in-a-Box initiative, which supports the development of biodiversity observation networks around the world. María Cecilia and Andrew Gonzalez will now form the co-Chair team for GEO BON for the next three years. Humboldt Institute is pleased to work with the Quebec Centre for Biodiversity Science to advance the development of a global coordinated strategy for biodiversity monitoring.
“I have high expectations from working with Andrew and the new secretariat. I hope I can echo different users’ needs and incorporate the capacities of different countries into the global network, so that we can more effectively deliver the best biodiversity information.”
María Cecilia Londoño is a biologist from the Universidad de los Andes in Colombia, with a Master’s and PhD from the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. Her main experience is the work of geographic analysis of biodiversity for decision making, she has developed analysis of macroecological patterns in the Colombian territory for a better definition of management units and she works on the production of biodiversity indicators for multiple users. Maria Cecilia is a senior researcher in the Evaluation and Monitoring Program of the Alexander von Humboldt Institute, where she works to improve biodiversity assessment and monitoring processes.