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Scientific advisers
Andrew A Cunningham
Professor Cunningham is Deputy Director of the Institute of Zoology at the Zoological Society of London, where he leads a research group focused on wildlife epidemiology. He discovered a viral disease affecting amphibians in the UK, published the first definitive report on the global extinction of a species due to an infectious disease, and was part of the international team that identified chytridiomycosis in amphibians. Since 2005, he has been working in Chile with various wildlife species, and since 2016, he has served as a senior scientific advisor to our NGO.
Benedict Schmidt
Dr. Schmidt leads a research group in amphibian conservation biology at the University of Zurich, Switzerland. He is a scientific collaborator with the Swiss Coordination Centre for the Protection of Amphibians and Reptiles (www.karch.ch). Dr. Schmidt’s primary interests include the study and application of evidence-based amphibian conservation, the population dynamics of wild amphibians, and the analysis of environmental DNA. Since 2017, he has served as a senior scientific advisor to the NGO Ranita de Darwin.
Claudio Azat
Dr. Azat is Director of the Research Center for Sustainability (CIS) at U. Andrés Bello and, since 2014, has served as Regional Co-Chair of the IUCN Amphibian Specialist Group for Chile. His research focuses on emerging diseases and their impact on biodiversity. Since 2008, he has been studying the epidemiology of Ranavirus and chytridiomycosis in amphibians in Chile, with a particular emphasis on the conservation of Darwin’s Frog. Since 2017, he has been a scientific advisor to the NGO Ranita de Darwin.
Marcela Marquez Garcia
Dr. Márquez is a postdoctoral researcher at the Río Cruces Wetlands Center (CEHUM), Universidad Austral de Chile. She conducts both scientific and practical work in the area of the human dimensions of biological conservation. Her interests include education, communication, and participation processes for conservation. Recently, she has been collaborating with the NGO in evaluating amphibian education programmes and understanding the factors that influence the participation of landowners in the land conservation programme. Since 2020, she has served as a scientific advisor to the NGO Ranita de Darwin.
