Venezuelan-born botanist, Ivón Ramírez Morillo originates from Caracas, but having worked in Yucatan since 1997 she became a naturalized Mexican in 2003. She gained her bachelor's degree in biology at the Central University of Venezuela, Caracas, with a thesis on the genus Encyclia (Orchidaceae) in Venezuela in 1987. During the latter part of her undergraduate studies Ramírez Morillo worked as an assistant in the National Herbarium of Venezuela (1985-1988) and following this she moved to the U.S.A. and the Missouri Botanic Garden. Serving as an assistant in their herbarium she worked towards her master's degree through the revision of the Bromeliaceae (Neoregelia) subgenus Hylaeaicum, a qualification she received from the University of Missouri-St. Louis in 1991. Immediately following this she embarked upon her doctoral studies at the same university where she worked as an assistant teacher and, researching the genus Cryptanthus (Bromeliaceae), was awarded her PhD in 1996.
Since 1997 Ramírez Morillo has worked for the Centro de Investigación Científica Yucatán, A. C. (CICY) as a professor and researcher. Her work has centred on the epiphytes of Venezuela and Mexico, especially the Bromeliaceae family, their taxonomy, floristics and reproductive biology and also the flora of Yucatan in general. As well as collecting herbarium specimens in the aforementioned countries Ramírez Morillo has travelled to Brazil and Costa Rica in order to gather epiphyte especimens. She has collected Araceae, Bromeliaceae and Orchidaceae in particular. Aside from the usual rigours of undertaking fieldwork in the tropics (the snakes, insects, indigenous groups, damaged vehicles, makeshift camps, days without food and exploring areas that have never been visited before) she had a particularly memorable trip to Bahia, Brazil; her collection permits were largely ignored, even by immigration staff, except for one particularly thorough elderly gentleman at a remote ranch who insisted on scrutinising the paperwork before allowing her to collect on his land.
Aside from almost 60 published articles and several book chapters on the taxonomy and floristics of her chosen epiphyte groups Ramírez Morillo is co-author of the book Guía Ilustrada de las Bromeliaceae de la porción mexicana de la Península de Yucatán (published 2004). She has also contributed to student development at CICY by directing numerous undergraduate and postgraduate theses and has actively participated in the coordination and advancement of postgraduate studies in Mexico. Married to fellow Venezuelan botanist Germán Carnevali Fernández-Concha together they have three children. The species Anthurium iramirezae G.S. Bunting (Araceae), Tassadia ivonae Morillo (Apocynaceae) and Encyclia ivonae Carnevali and G.A. Romero-González (Orchidaceae) have all been named in her honour.
Sources:
Personal communication, October 2009.
