Elvira Cuevas

Elvira Cuevas Viera is a Puerto Rican ecologist. She is a professor in the department of biology at University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras Campus where she serves as director of the Center for Applied Tropical Ecology and Conservation.

This article uses Spanish naming customs: the first or paternal family name is Cuevas and the second or maternal family name is Viera.
Elvira Cuevas
Born (1950-08-20) August 20, 1950
San Juan, Puerto Rico, U.S.
Alma materUniversity of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras Campus (B.S., M.S.)
Venezuelan Institute for Scientific Research (Ph.D.)
Children1
AwardsGuggenheim Fellowship (2000)
Scientific career
FieldsTropical ecology, ecophysiology
InstitutionsUniversity of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras Campus
ThesisCrecimiento de raices finas y su relacion con los procesos de descomposicion de materia organica y liberacion de nutrientes en bosques del alto Rio Negro en el territorio federal Amazonas (1983)

Early life and education

Cuevas was born on August 20, 1950 in San Juan, Puerto Rico.[1] She became interested in science at a young age and originally planned to go into medicine. She shifted to ecology after taking an ecology course under Herminio Lugo Lugo at University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras Campus (UPR-RP). She graduated with a bachelor's and master's degrees in biology at UPR-RP.[2] Her 1975 master's thesis was titled Changes in selected water quality parameters as influenced by land use patterns in the Espiritu Santo drainage basin.[3] Cuevas completed a Ph.D. in ecology at the Venezuelan Institute for Scientific Research (IVIC) in 1984.[4] She was the first graduate in the field of ecology at IVIC and in Venezuela.[2] Her dissertation was titled Crecimiento de raices finas y su relacion con los procesos de descomposicion de materia organica y liberacion de nutrientes en bosques del alto Rio Negro en el territorio federal Amazonas.[5] She was a postdoctoral fellow with the International Institute of Tropical Forestry.[2]

Career

Cuevas lived and worked in Venezuela for 25 years. In 2001, she joined the faculty at UPR-RP[2] where she is a professor in the department of biology.[4] She is the director of the Center for Applied Tropical Ecology and Conservation at UPR-RP.[2][6] In May 2004, Cuevas became an adjunct faculty member in the department of management and conservation of natural resources in the faculty of veterinary and zootechnology at the Universidad Autónoma de Yucatán.[6]

Research

Cuevas researches ecosystem ecology, the processes and function of ecosystems, plant-soil interactions, nutrient cycling, and the carbon cycle.[4] She also investigates the eco-hydrology of semi-arid systems and urban wetlands. Cuevas researches the ecophysiological responses of plants to climate change, climate variability, and heavy metal pollution in urban wetlands. She uses natural stable isotope technology to identify sources of water and carbon in the soil and evaluate plants' responses to water and nutrient availability.[1]

Awards and honors

In 2000, Cuevas was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship to study plant sciences.[7] In 2019, she became the first Puerto Rican woman named to the Latin American Academy of Science.[2]

Personal life

Cuevas is married and has a son. Both her husband and son are scientists.[2]

References
  1. Elías, Henry (2019-05-09). "Elvira Cuevas". Latin American Academy of Science (in Spanish). Retrieved 2019-07-29.
  2. Velázquez, Frances M. (2019-05-03). "Elvira Cuevas: una mujer de vanguardia". El Vocero de Puerto Rico (in Spanish). Retrieved 2019-07-29.
  3. Cuevas, Elvira (1975). Changes in selected water quality parameters as influenced by land use patterns in the Espiritu Santo drainage basin (Thesis).
  4. "Biology-UPRRP: Elvira Cuevas". 2018-02-25. Archived from the original on 2018-02-25. Retrieved 2019-07-29.
  5. Cuevas Viera, Elvira. (1983). Crecimiento de raices finas y su relacion con los procesos de descomposicion de materia organica y liberacion de nutrientes en bosques del alto Rio Negro en el territorio federal Amazonas. Instituto Venezolano de Investigaciones Cientificas. OCLC 1039870630.
  6. Cuevas, Elvira (2011). "Annual Report 2010-2011" (PDF). Center for Applied Tropical Ecology and Conservation.
  7. "Elvira Cuevas". John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. Retrieved 2019-07-29.
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