Pedro Flombaum

From an “Ecologist Directory” maintained by the ESA Education Office about 2004-2005. Profile circa 2004.
Degree                                                               Ph.D. 2008 (Brown University)
Position                                                             Graduate Student
Department                                                       Biology
Organization                                                     Brown University
E. Lucy Braun Award 2004

When did you get interested in ecology?  Who was most influential in guiding you into ecology?
As a kid, I always felt attracted to nature and I enjoyed spending time outdoors. At school, I became concerned about the threats that species and ecosystems currently face.

When I had to decide about a concentration at my University, I chose the study of ecology.
As a graduate student, I have been working with Osvaldo Sala, who showed me the challenges of research in ecology. Osvaldo, who is my current advisor, taught me to identify important questions, to solve them with parsimony, and to clearly communicate my results. He also shares with me his vision of the role of ecological sciences in society.
How did you learn about ecological careers?  What is your position title now?
I have had several assistantships at NGO’s, governmental departments and, in the last years, at the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina. Currently, I am a graduate student at Brown University.
Describe your route to a career in (or using) ecology. What challenges did you need to overcome? What was your training, and what positions have you held?
I received my B.S. in Biology from the University of Buenos Aires (UBA), Argentina, shortly afterwards, I started my graduate studies at the UBA and I will finish them at Brown University. I went through many challenges since I started my PhD, one of the big ones was to present my results at the ESA.
What key advice would you offer a student today?
A good advice to a student like me, especially a foreigner, would be to learn how to communicate in English very well. You will be able to share your results with researchers from all over the world which is great fun and highly motivating.
What advice do you have for communicating ecology to diverse audiences?
People are exposed to a continuous source of information, through TV and Internet, where they perceive general concepts of biology. You can use these as starting point to make yourself clear with your research.
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