Education

• PhD University of Puerto Rico Río Piedras Campus
• MS University of Puerto Rico Mayagüez Campus
• BS University of Puerto Rico at Ponce

About

Dr. Josué Santiago-Vera, assistant professor of Foundations of Biology III, Animal Behavior, Global Environmental Issues, and Ecology, started teaching at Mount Mercy in 2021.

After earning a BS for Biomedical Sciences at the University of Puerto Rico at Ponce, an MS for Biology at the University of Puerto Rico Mayagüez Campus, and a PhD for Environmental Sciences at the University of Puerto Rico Río Piedras Campus, he became a mentor at the REU program for Tropical Ecology.

He worked as a member in the Puerto Rico Natural Resources Career Track outreach program for teaching students about the conservation of natural resources in K-5 schools. Moreover, he assisted in research at the Luquillo Long Term Ecological Research Station and instructed zoology related courses at the University of Puerto Rico at Ponce and microbiology laboratories at the University of Puerto Rico Mayagüez Campus.

During Dr. Santiago-Vera’s master’s, he was a recipient of a Holz-Conner Travel Award (2013—International Society of Protistology) and was invited to present his research in the International Congress of Protistology in 2013.

Dr. Santiago-Vera further researched how hurricanes affected the community of meiofauna in a tropical stream in Puerto Rico. He is consistently researching the ecology of freshwater invertebrates and how environmental changes affect the community. He also has an interest in entomology and protistology, focusing on their ecology and diversity.

In his free time, Dr. Santiago-Vera enjoys drawing, coloring, art, nature journaling and spending time with his family. He is also a member of Macrolatinos, LUQ-LTER, and the Society for Freshwater Science.