Arturo Gómez-Pompa: 1934—: Ethnobotanist, Educator, Advisor/Consultant

Gómez-Pompa was born in Mexico City and earned degrees from the National Autonomous University of Mexico. At age 24 he received an appointment from the Mexican government to direct a commission partnering with pharmaceutical companies to survey medicinal plants. The task set him on a life's work studying the Mexican rain forest.

In 1966 Gómez-Pompa completed a Ph. D. in botany from his alma mater. In the late 1960s, he observed forest ecology at a biological station at Los Tuxtlas, Mexico, and compiled a database of native plants in Veracruz. The project began a collection of facts and images that aids researchers in plant identification and provides information from major museums to the developing nations where specimens originated. In 1972 Gómez-Pompa published in Science magazine "The Tropical Rain Forest: A Nonrenewable Resource," a touch-stone of information that generated discussion and research worldwide. In the spring of 1982, he participated in Colorado State University's Distinguished Ecologist Lecture Series.