Argentine botanist and director of the Darwinion Institute of Botany in Buenos Aires. Fernando Zuloaga was born in La Plata, Buenos Aires province, and studied at the National University of La Plata, graduating as a botanist in 1974 from their Faculty of Natural Sciences. He went on to complete a doctorate in 1978 at the same institution, studying the Poaceae family. Remaining at the University of La Plata he became a professor in 1994 and lectured in phytogeography; in 1979 he began to research under CONICET (the National Council for Research in Science and Technology) and is currently a superior researcher (2007-).

From 1977 Zuloaga has been employed by the Darwinion Institute of Botany in San Isidro, Buenos Aires province, and has worked his way from curator to head of systematics, vice-director and director of their publication Darwiniana and from 1998 has been director of the institution. As a researcher he has focused on the taxonomy of the Poaceae and has published over 150 articles including several books, three in the series Catalogue of the Vascular Plants of Argentina (1994-1999, Missouri Botanical Garden), and three in the series Catalogue of the Vascular Plants of the Southern Cone (2008, Missouri Botanical Garden).

Between 1985 and 2009 Zuloaga was responsible for directing over 40 grants, 12 PhD students and several researchers under CONICET and has been a fellow of the Guggenheim Foundation, the Smithsonian Institution and the Jessie Smith Noyes Foundation. He has personally received grants from the Guggenheim Foundation, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Natural History Museum of Paris, the Smithsonian Institution, World Wildlife Fund, and the National Geographic Society. Named a senior scientist of the Missouri Botanic Gardens, he has also received the prizes 'Conservar el Futuro' and the Diploma al M⟩rito 2003 from the Fundaci⟳n Konex; he is also a member of many Argentine scientific societies. Zuloaga has been collecting vascular plants since 1970 and as of 2009 has amassed a collection of 11,280 specimens, which have been gathered on over 60 field trips all across Argentina and in many other South and Central American countries. He has been honoured in the epithets of several species, including Solanum zuloagae Cabrera, Axonopus zuloagae Giraldo Ca⟱as, Paspalum zuloagae Filgueiras and Davidse and Guadua zuloagae Zucol, as well as the genus Zuloagaea Bess et al. (Poaceae).

Sources:
Personal communication
Fernando Omar Zuloaga. Academia Nacional de Ciencias: http://acad.uncor.edu/academicos/correspondientes/resenia/zuloaga.