Salvador Contreras-Balderas
Salvador Contreras-Balderas (born February 19, 1936 in Mexico City , † February 11, 2009 in San Nicolás de los Garza , Nuevo León ) was a Mexican ichthyologist and conservationist.
Live and act
Contreras-Balderas was the son of Luis Contreras Balderas Diaz and Victoria Balderas Freeman. He had 6 brothers, one of whom Armando Jesús Contreras-Balderas is a zoologist. When he was between 5 and 6 years old, the family moved to Monterrey , the capital of the Mexican state of Nuevo León . From 1957 to 1961 he studied biology at the University of Nuevo Léon. In September 1962 he wrote his dissertation with the title "Contribución al Conocimiento de la Ictiofauna del Río San Juan, Provincia del Bravo, México" (German: Contribution to the knowledge of the fish fauna of the Rio San Juan, Province of Bravo, Mexico ). From 1962 to 1966 he completed a diploma study at Tulane University in New Orleans , USA, where he graduated with a Master of Science. In August 1975 he received his doctorate from the same university with the thesis "Zoogeography and Evolution of Notropis lutrensis and" Notropis "ornatus in the Rio Grande Basin and Range México and United States. (Pisces: Cyprinidae) ”for Ph.D. Subsequently, Contreras-Balderas taught at the Faculty of Biological Sciences of the Universidad Autonoma de Nuevo León (UANL) the subjects of evolution , fish and fishery biology , vertebrates of the northeast, environmental sciences , ecology , ethology and ichthyology . He was also Secretary at the Faculty of Biological Sciences and Director General for Scientific Research at the Universidad Autonoma de Nuevo León. In September 1997 Contreras-Balderas was appointed professor emeritus at this university.
Contreras-Balderas published over 150 articles in national and international publications. These include the first descriptions of 15 new fish and crustaceans. In 50 years he has assembled one of the largest ichthyological collections in Mexico, which is kept both in the Universidad Autonoma de Nuevo León and abroad. In 1994 he campaigned for the Valle de Cuatro Ciénegas in Coahuila to be recognized as a nature reserve, which, with 70 endemic species on 1000 km², contains the highest degree of endemism in Mexico.
Contreras-Balderas was a member of 32 scientific societies, including the American Association for the Advancement of Science , the Desert Fishes Council, Bioconservación AC, the Southeastern Fishes Council, the Sociedad Mexicana de Zoología, AC, and the Colegio de Biólogos del Estado de Nuevo León, AC, in the Sociedad Ictiológica Mexicana, AC, in the Neotropical Ichthyological Association, in the International Council for Scientific Development, in the Sociedad Limnológica Mexicana, AC, in the Coalition for the Sustainable Development of the Rio Grande / Rio Bravo and in the Coalición para el Desarrollo Sustentable del Río Bravo.
Dedication names
Two fish species were named after Contreras-Balderas in 2002: Cyprinodon salvadori by María de Lourdes Lozano Vilano and Chirostoma contrerasi by Clyde D. Barbour.
literature
- María de Lourdes Lozano Vilano: In memoriam Dr. Salvador Contreras Balderas (1936 - 2009) In: Hidrobiológica v.19 n.1 México abr. 2009 ISSN 0188-8897 online
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Contreras-Balderas, Salvador |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Mexican ichthyologist and conservationist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | February 19, 1936 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Mexico city |
| DATE OF DEATH | February 11, 2009 |
| Place of death | San Nicolás de los Garza , Nuevo León |