WildCRUer wins Marie Curie Prize

The Bolivian National Academy of Science annually awards the Marie Curie Prize to national female scientists for their contribution to promoting and stimulating the progress of science in the country. This year the Academy acknowledged the work of WildCRU's Erika Cuéllar Soto, recognizing her scientific contribution to the field of Environmental Science and Sustainable Development. Erika was born in Santa Cruz and studied biology in Universidad Autónoma Gabriel René Moreno in Bolivia, followed by a master degree in Conservation Biology, Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology, University of Kent at Canterbury, U.K . This year she attained her DPhil from Zoology, Oxford based on the study of the ecology and conservation of the Chacoan guanaco Lama guanicoe, focusing on the woody encroachment phenomena on tropical savannah.

Erika is striving to guarantee the sustainability of the natural environment by working with the local communities in her native Bolivia, for which she has funded two local NGOs, and she coordinates the Bolivian Committee of the IUCN Species Survival Commission. This prize adds to the international recognition that Erika is receiving for her work in the Bolivian Chaco, including the Whitley Award 2007 and the Rolex Award received in 2012.