Staff Scientist at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute. Ancón, Panama. My research investigates the causes, patterns, and processes of tropical biodiversity at diverse temporal and spatial scales, as well as the evolution of tropical landscapes over geological time. I intend to address questions from a paleontological perspective (mainly using palynology), a point of view that is vital for understanding and predicting the behavior of biota in tropical ecosystems. I am also interested in energy exploration, Cretaceous-Cenozoic biostratigraphy of low latitudes, developing methods for high-resolution biostratigraphy and the paleobiogeography of Tethys.