Biography

Puerto Rican bryologist, Inés Sastre de Jesús is a professor at the University of Puerto Rico in Mayagüez. Born in Santurce she studied for her BSc in biology at the Catholic University of Puerto Rico in Ponce between 1972 and 1975; a university in which she worked several times as a teacher in their Department of Biology. In 1979 she gained a master's degree from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, with a thesis on the ecological life cycle of Buchenavia capitata (Vahl.) Eichl. and her PhD in plant systematics was awarded by the City University of New York for her work on the Neckeraceae Schimp. and Thamnobryaceae Marg. and Dur. in the Neotropics.

Since 1993 Sastre de Jesús has taught at the University of Puerto Rico at their campus in Mayagüez as well as undertaking two postdoctoral positions in Río Piedras, one for the Institute of Tropical Forestry (1990-1991) and the other for the University of Puerto Rico's program for improvement in tropical biology (1992-1993). Other important positions she has held include editor of the Caribbean Journal of Science and president of the Sociedad Latinoamericana de Briología on several occasions; she is also the coordinator of the project 'Red Caribeña de Botánica', the Caribbean botany network. Sastre de Jesús is particularly interested in the bryophyte floristics of the Caribbean and South America and bryophyte systematics, ecology and conservation, as well as the history of natural resource management in Puerto Rico. Her research has taken her on fieldwork trips throughout the neotropics and to parts of the U.S.A., collecting upwards of 5,000 bryophyte specimens. The specific epithet of the liverwort Neurolejunea sastreana honours her many contributions to the field, which include numerous publications and administrative roles.

Sources:
Personal communication, December 2009.