BIODIV alumnus Mariana Marques receives CETAF award for outstanding doctoral research
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Former BIODIV PhD student Mariana Marques has been awarded the CETAF E-SCoRe Award for her doctoral thesis on the diversity and conservation of inselberg reptiles and amphibians in south-western Africa. The distinction recognises excellence in collections-based biodiversity research and highlights the importance of taxonomy and natural history collections for addressing global conservation challenges.
Former BIODIV PhD student Mariana Marques has been awarded the CETAF E-SCoRe Award for her doctoral thesis on the diversity and conservation of inselberg reptiles and amphibians in south-western Africa. The distinction recognises excellence in collections-based biodiversity research and highlights the importance of taxonomy and natural history collections for addressing global conservation challenges.
Mariana Marques, a former student of the BIODIV Doctoral Programme and former researcher at CIBIO-BIOPOLIS, has been awarded the CETAF E-SCoRe Award for Excellence in Scientific Collections-based Research for her PhD thesis, Islands in a Sea of Sand: Diversity and Conservation of South-western African Inselberg Herpetofauna. The award is presented by the Consortium of European Taxonomic Facilities (CETAF), which brings together more than 80 leading natural history institutions across Europe.
The distinction recognises outstanding early-career researchers whose work advances the understanding of biodiversity through the use of scientific collections. CETAF highlights the role of collections-based research in addressing global challenges such as biodiversity loss and climate change.
"My research focused on Serra da Neve, Angola, a region previously unexplored, where I identified critical knowledge gaps regarding local herpetofauna. The work provided the first comprehensive biodiversity assessment of the area, revealing exceptional levels of endemism, comparable to much larger hotspots in neighboring African countries, and confirming the region's importance as a biogeographic convergence center in Southwestern Africa. A key outcome of this study was the formal description of ten reptile species new to science, a fundamental step in addressing the taxonomic impediments that hinder effective biodiversity conservation in Angola" says Mariana Marques.
"Receiving the CETAF E-SCoRe Award is a great honor and a recognition of the value of taxonomy and natural history collections, which served as the backbone of modern research. This distinction reinforces the importance of bridging fieldwork with the value and use of specimens held in collections worldwide. At a time when we face a global biodiversity crisis, I believe this award validates the urgent need to invest in integrative taxonomy and our collections to preserve our planet's biological record for future generations", concludes Mariana Marques.