Buen día!
My name is Jorge Ramos, and I am a first year Master of Science student in Dr. Josh Lawler's Landscape Ecology laboratory at the College of Forest Resources, University of Washington. Having been raised and educated in México, a country rich in biodiversity and also one of the fastest growing countries in Latin America, I have always been exposed to changes in our natural landscape. I moved back to the United States and started my college education at the University of Texas at El Paso in 2006 from where I received my Bachelor of Science in Environmental Science in 2006. As an undergraduate, I took advantage of many opportunities that gave me the privilege to work in ecosystems all the way from the Chihuahuan desert to the Arctic tundra. I focused my research on the effects of human disturbances in animal populations, such as soil arthropods, pinnipeds (harbor and gray seal), and amphibians (wood frog). Before starting graduate school, I worked for the Ecological Society of America as their SEEDS Student Coordinator. Living in Washington, DC and working with the SEEDS program, I was inspired to start thinking thoroughly on how my research will impact environmental policies and the general public.
In graduate school, I plan to learn how to model how landscape changes over time, so that I can predict how these changes will affect animal populations. With these skills, I plan to construct a research project that will look at how landscape changes (such as urbanization) affect amphibian populations over time in the Pacific Northwest region.