Flavia Montaño-Centellas

Flavia Montaño-Centellas is a community ecologist whose research focuses on how changes in species interaction across environmental gradients — things such as elevation changes and human disturbance — lead to changes in biodiversity. She conducts field work in a hugely biodiverse yet vastly understudied region: the high mountains of Bolivia. Using techniques including bird tagging, visual behavioral observations and plant surveys, she acquires hard-to-get data critical for testing hypotheses and filling gaps in our knowledge of the drivers of biodiversity, both in the high Andes and around the world. Her work has provided insights into the factors allowing and maintaining high diversities in mountain systems.

As a new professor at Louisiana State University, Montaño-Centellas is dedicated to providing meaningful scientific opportunities to young scientists and community members. Working with collaborators, she helped develop a project that provided hands-on experience in every step of the research process to young female scientists in Bolivia. For example, one of their projects focuses on examining spatial variation in pollination networks across the complex landscape of La Paz city, Bolivia. She is committed to expanding diversity in the sciences by action and example.

For more information, visit her website.