Education – Professional Preparation:
2007 Ph. D. Biology University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras Campus
Academic experience
Professor (full time), Department of Biology, UPRH; 2013–2019 Associate Professor (full time), Department of Biology, UPRH; 2007–2013 Assistant Professor (full time), Department of Biology, UPRH. Courses taught include General Ecology, Ecology of Tropical Terrestrial Communities, Evolution-Fundamental Concepts (co-teaching course). Laboratories taught include General Biology, General Ecology, Botany, Biology of Terrestrial Vertebrates from Puerto Rico, Ecology of Tropical Terrestrial Communities, Wildlife Management, 2019–Present.
Graduate and Undergraduate Mentoring
Graduate Committee Member for Daniel Dávila-Casanova, (Ph.D. UPR-Río Piedras); Gisela M. Crespo Martínez (Ph.D. UPR-Río Piedras); Billy Santiago Merced, (M.S. UMET-Río Piedras), Eliacim Agosto Torres (M.S. UPR-Mayagüez); Miss Julymar Rodríguez López (Undergraduate Honor Thesis UPR-Humacao); research mentor of eight (8) students/semester on average (UPR-Humacao).
Service Activities
2018–Present Academic Senate Representative, Biology Department, UPRH; Representative at University Board (Junta Universitaria)-UPR, Academic Senate UPRH; 2015–Present Chairperson, National Institutes of Health-Office of Laboratory Animal Welfare, IACUC-UPRH; 2014–Present Co-Coordinator, Wildlife Management Program, UPRH; 2012–Present Counselor, Association of Wildlife Management Students, UPRH. 2008–Present Reviewer: Applied Herpetology, Biotropica, Caribbean Naturalist, and LIFE: The Excitement of Biology, IUCN-Red List of Threatened Species (Puerto Rican anurans); Contributions at television, radio, newspaper, and on-line formats on ecology and conservation.
Most Recent Professional Development Activities
Editor, professional scientific journal, and serial.
Publications
Six manuscripts in preparation, three manuscripts accepted for publication, 36 articles – 11 publications between 2015–present: only 2019–present (selected)
Heatwole, H. and Ríos-López, N., 2020 (accepted). Theories of Insular Biogeography and Ecology. Chapter 14 in Part 5. The Caribbean, in Volume 9 of Status and Decline of Amphibians: Western Hemisphere, edited by Neftalí Ríos-López and Harold Heatwole. Series: Amphibian Biology. Pelagic Press, Exeter, UK.
Ríos-López, N., 2020 (accepted). Status of amphibians in the Republic of Haiti: a review. Chapter 19 in Part The Caribbean, in Volume 9 of Status and Decline of Amphibians: Western Hemisphere, edited by Neftalí Ríos-López and Harold Heatwole. Series: Amphibian Biology. Pelagic Press, Exeter, UK.
Ríos-López, N., Puente-Rolón, A. R., Angeli, N. F., Vega-Castillo, S., and Dávila-Casanova, D., 2020 (accepted). Amphibians and their history, distribution, and conservation in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. Chapter 21 in Part 5. The Caribbean, in Volume 9 of Status and Decline of Amphibians: Western Hemisphere, edited by Neftalí Ríos-López and Harold Heatwole. Series: Amphibian Biology. Pelagic Press, Exeter, UK.
Santiago-Suliveras, G., Crespo-Zapata, J. D., Ríos-López, N., and Puente-Rolón, A. R., 2019. Xenochrophis vittatus (Striped Keelback). Diet and Distribution. Herpetological Review 50: 604.
Yu, M., E. Rivera-Ocasio, T. Heartsill-Scalley, D. Davila-Casanova, N. Ríos-López, and Q. Gao. 2019. Landscape-level consequences of rising sea-level on coastal wetlands: Saltwater intrusion drives displacement and mortality in the Twenty-first Century. Wetlands.
Presentations
only five (selected) from 2019 alone.
Ríos-López, N., Vega-Castillo, S. I., and Puente-Rolón, A. R. On lessons for the conservation of amphibians in Puerto Rico: a transdisciplinary perspective. Invited Speaker in the “I Simposio Internacional: Estado y perspectivas para los anfibios en Ecuador: Aportes para la estrategia Nacional de Conservación”, Cuenca, Ecuador. April-May 2019.
Santiago Suliveras, G., Crespo-Zapata, J. D., Cadenas-Graupera, D., Rivera-Montalvo, F., Plass-Maldonado, F., and Ríos-López, N. On the role of naturalized species on local food-webs in Puerto Rico: the rules of engagement between the Cuban Treefrog, Osteopilus septentrionalis, and the Puerto Rican Racer, Borikenophis portoricensis. Poster presentation at the Puerto Rico Invasive Species Awareness Symposium at the University of Puerto Rico-Río Piedras Campus. April 25–26, 2019.
Ríos-López, N. Census of strayed animals in Puerto Rico: challenges for policy-making and societal awareness from a historical and scientific perspective. Talk at the “2nd Annual Conference Pro-Animal Welfare” at the Universidad Ana G. Méndez-Carolina Campus, Puerto Rico. March 9, 2019.
Crespo-Zapata, J. and Ríos-López, N. Bridging the communication gap between amateur nature-photographers and scientific researchers: the contribution of social networks to the science of Natural History in Puerto Rico. Talk at the “4th Conference of Caribbean Partners for Amphibian and Reptile Conservation (Carib-PARC)” in Kingston, Jamaica. January 27, 2019.
Ríos-López, N. On Puerto Rican extinct and “new” Eleutherodactylus frogs in the Anthropocene: implications for the advance of current knowledge for conservation applications. Talk at the “4th Conference of Caribbean Partners for Amphibian and Reptile Conservation (Carib-PARC)” in Kingston, Jamaica. January 27, 2019.
Honors and Awards
2016–present Editor in Chief (2019-present) – ACTA CIENTÍFICA: una revista transdisciplinaria de Puerto Rico y el Caribe. Published by the U.S.D.A., U.S. Forest Service, International Institute of Tropical Forestry, Río Piedras, PR; Invited Speaker in the “I Simposio Internacional: Estado y perspectivas para lows anfibios en Ecuador: Aportes para la estrategia Nacional de Conservación”, Cuenca, Ecuador (2019); Principal Editor, Part 5. The Caribbean, in Volume 9 of Status and Decline of Amphibians: Western Hemisphere, edited by Neftalí Ríos-López and Harold Heatwole. Series: Amphibian Biology. Pelagic Press, Exeter, UK (2016-present); Nominee to the “Alison Haskell Award for Excellence in Herpetofaunal Conservation”, presented annually by Partners in Amphibian and Reptile Conservation (PARC, 2016).