In honor to

José Iván was born in the city of Bogotá in 1957. He graduated as a biologist from the Javeriana University and obtained his PhD in Conservation Biology in 2009 from the Complutense University of Madrid, Spain. His thesis, Structure of fish assemblages in jungle streams of the Amazon, Leticia region (Colombia), received the Outstanding Cum laude rating, and it was a work that compiled his nearly 20 years of research in the Colombian Amazon, in the vicinity from the city of Leticia.

In his career as a professor at the National University of Colombia, he directed more than 40 theses between undergraduate, master's and doctoral degrees, mostly addressing issues of Colombian ichthyology including basic knowledge, diet, species characterization, local and regional lists in the most remote areas of Colombia, to topics of conservation with an important activity in the impact of oil spills on fish communities that occurred in many Colombian aquatic ecosystems. In his role as a teacher, more than 180 students passed through his laboratory.

Javier was born in 1977 in Ubate, Cundinamarca. He graduated as an ecologist from the Javeriana University and obtained his doctorate in 2011 from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. A year later he became a professor at the Javeriana University, his alma mater, where he would later be director of the Biology department.

Their research sought to answer questions about the historical and ecological factors that influence the diversification of neotropical freshwater fish. Javier directed the “Amazonian Fishes and Climate Change” project. A project supported by the Colombian government with the participation of researchers from Europe and South America to build the largest database on South American fish. The database has been extensively used for management and conservation of the amazon basin. Javier also had a special interest in the ancestral knowledge about rivers and their fish. He published 65 articles (12 as main author), 7 books, 35 book chapters and more than 41 pieces of popular science.