Peruvian biologist from Moche in La Libertad, Isidoro M. Sánchez Vega is based at the University of Cajamarca where he studies the flora of northern Peru, the management of botanical resources and the taxonomy of the Asteraceae and Poaceae. After initially training to become a teacher of secondary education at the National University of Trujillo, he began to teach at the University of Cajamarca in their Faculty of Agricultural and Forestry Science (1962). Soon embarking upon a career in the biological sciences he undertook a BSc at the University of Trujillo and graduated as a biologist in 1969. Continuing on to a master's degree at the Postgraduate College of Chapingo in Mexico Sánchez Vega studied the systematics of several members of the genus Eragrostis (Poaceae). For his PhD he returned to Peru and the University of Trujillo to research the 'Jalca', an Andean ecosystem in the Department of Cajamarca. Since 1993 he has lectured on ethnobotany and native trees and shrubs at the University of Cajamarca in their postgraduate school, and he is also president of their organisational committee.

Sánchez Vega has undertaken extensive fieldwork in the north of Peru, collecting throughout the department of Cajamarca, montane cloud forests, dry forests the Páramo and the Jalca and created many floristic inventories for such regions. He has also been employed as a national assessor for a development and conservation program for small agricultural communities. As director of the herbarium of his university (CPUN) he has amassed a personal collection of over 14,050 specimens from all over Peru, although primarily focusing on the north of the country. His taxonomic research has resulted in the description of almost 20 species from the Asteraceae and Poaceae families, including several species of Coreopsis and Piptochaetium.

In 2001 he was a visiting researcher at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C. where he undertook a revision of the Eragrostis genus and in 1993 was made a research associate for both the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago and the Ohio State University Herbarium. Seven species bare his name in honour of his contributions to the field of botany, including Ascidiogyne sanchez vegae Cabrera, Dalea isidorii Barneby and Verbesina sanchezii Sagastegui.

Sources:
Personal communication, December 2009.