Deb Finn, Missouri State University (USA)
Tentative Conference Title: “Stream networks, dispersal traits, and connectivity in mountain stream headwaters”
Deb is a stream ecologist and associate professor at Missouri State University (USA). She spends most of her time attempting to mesh empirical research in streams with teaching and mentoring students, ultimately aiming to fill them with awe over “stream bugs”. She is fascinated by the phenomenal diversity of stream invertebrates that persists in such dynamic physical habitat, and much of her work addresses the roles of connectivity and habitat heterogeneity in conferring resistance and resilience to populations. Mountain headwaters have long been her focus, given the complex topography, hydrological heterogeneity, and physical isolation of headwaters at the tips of stream networks. She has worked in the tropical high Andes of Ecuador, the Alps and Pyrenees of Europe, the Great Dividing Range in SE Australia, and a number of mountainous regions of North America. Her favorite taxa are aquatic insects, particularly the EPT.
Monika Springer, Universidad de Costa Rica
Tentative Conference Title: “Trichoptera studies: Perspectives from the Central American land bridge”
Biologist graduated from the University of Munich, Germany; She arrived in Costa Rica for the first time in 1990 as an exchange student and since 1995 she has worked at the School of Biology of the University of Costa Rica, where she is a full professor. She is an associate researcher at the Center for Research in Marine Sciences and Limnology, CIMAR, and curator of Aquatic Entomology at the Museum of Zoology of the University of Costa Rica (MZUCR) of the Center for Research in Biodiversity and Tropical Ecology (CIBET). Her research interests include the taxonomy and biology of aquatic insects, with emphasis on caddisfly larvae, and their use as biological indicators in the monitoring, management, and conservation of freshwater environments.
Simon Vitecek, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna, Austria
Tentative Conference Title: "Some exciting things we could do, maybe"
Simon is an aquatic entomologist and mostly concentrates on caddisflies (but can easily be distracted by stoneflies, mayflies and other aquatic invertebrates). After starting out on a purely taxonomic and systematic research agenda as part of a fantastic team, a lot of his work now deals with aquatic insect biodiversity in general: Simon tries to understand how ecological and evolutionary processes shape biodiversity patterns but also how biodiversity shapes ecosystem functioning. But sometimes he doesn’t and spends hours in marvel at the beauty of aquatic life.
Andrea C. Encalada, Universidad San Francisco de Quito, Ecuador
Tentative Conference Title: “Conservation of Amazonian freshwater ecosystems and their biodiversity”
Andrea C. Encalada is a freshwater ecologist and professor at Universidad San Francisco de Quito, and she is also an Adjunct Professor at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. She got her Ph.D. from Cornell University and since then she has been working on stream and river research in tropical and temperate ecosystems. During the last 15 years she has focused her research on river structure and function along elevation gradients in Andean-Amazon watersheds. She is particularly interested in climate change and other anthropogenic changes, including drying river networks, and how these impacts might alter populations, communities, and ecosystem processes.