Latin American Microscopists

Welcome to the Latin American Microscopists series from Mariana de Niz. In this series, Mariana interviews inspirational scientists from Latin America to discover what first motivated them to become researchers, how their backgrounds have impacted their career and why you should visit their home country! You can explore the series country-by-country or find all the interviews below.

Interview with Aníbal Vargas Ríos, LiSIUM initiative coordinator

Posted by Helen Zenner, on 17 February 2026

Following The Company of Biologists’ Workshop in Ecuador, I caught up with Aníbal Vargas Ríos for an update on the Light-Sheet Imaging Universidad Mayor (LiSIUM) initiative. Aníbal is a postdoctoral researcher at Universidad Mayor and coordinator of the (LiSIUM) initiative. We discussed Aníbal’s path to his current position, his favourite moments as part of the

Federal Super-Resolution Network in Argentina

Posted by Lucía Lopez, on 4 December 2025

About twenty years ago, a series of methods known today as super-resolution microscopy were discovered. Since then, super-resolution microscopy has become a powerful tool for discovery in cell biology, biomedicine, and biophysics. However, the complexity of some methods, high costs, and demanding sample preparation protocols have hindered their widespread application. In Argentina, the group led

An interview with Maribel Torres Velázquez

Posted by Mariana De Niz, on 6 August 2024

MiniBio: Maribel Torres Velázquez is a NURTURE postdoctoral fellow in the lab of Prof. Gregory Schwartz at the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University, where she uses microscopy to study the retina-to-brain circuitry. Specifically, she aims to uncover the retina-brain connectivity map by identifying to which unique brain areas different retinal ganglion cell sub-types

An interview with Lisandra Vila Ellis

Posted by Mariana De Niz, on 23 July 2024

MiniBio: Lisandra Vila-Elis is Assistant Professor of Cell and Developmental Biology at Northwestern University, where she studies the role of a newly discovered endothelial cell population in the lungs, and their relevance to gas diffusion and lung health and disease. Lisandra was born in Cuba, and moved to Ecuador at a young age. She then

An interview with Esley Torres

Posted by Mariana De Niz, on 2 July 2024

MiniBio: Esley Torres began his career in Cuba, and is currently a postdoctoral scientist and lecturer at Universidad de la República, in Montevideo, Uruguay. Esley began his undergraduate studies in Chemistry and changed directions to pursue an undergraduate degree in Mathematics at the University of Havana, Cuba. He worked at the Institute of Cybernetics, Mathematics

An interview with Juan Quintana

Posted by Mariana De Niz, on 25 June 2024

MiniBio: Juan Quintana is a Wellcome Trust Fellow and group leader at the Division of Immunology, Immunity to infection, and Respiratory Medicine, the Lydia Becker Institute of Immunology and Inflammation, and the Geoffrey Jefferson Centre for Brain Research at the University of Manchester, UK. The Quintana lab works intersectionally to understand the immunological basis of

An interview with Erick Hernandez Renjifo

Posted by Mariana De Niz, on 5 December 2023

MiniBio: Dr. Erick Hernandez Renjifo leads the Materials Analysis team at the Institute of OMICAS research at Universidad Javeriana de Cali, Colombia. Erick started his career in Materials Sciences at Universidad del Valle. He has had a versatile career in both, academia, and industry, where he worked at a copper steelworks factory and a car

An interview with Laura Daza

Posted by Mariana De Niz, on 28 November 2023

MiniBio: Laura Daza just finished her PhD at CinfonIA, at Universidad de los Andes in Colombia. During her doctorate degree, she has worked in a variety of projects ranging from Computer Vision to image and data analysis. She studied Biomedical Engineering at Universidad de los Andes, where she first found her passion for Image Analysis.

An interview with Sebastian Lourido

Posted by Mariana De Niz, on 21 November 2023

MiniBio: Prof. Sebastian Lourido is a tenured professor at the Whitehead Institute and the Faculty of Biology at MIT in Boston, USA. He began his studies in Colombia, and from an early age developed an interest for the natural world. Seeking versatility in his undergraduate degree, he went to Tulane, in the USA, where he

An interview with Iván Rey

Posted by Mariana De Niz, on 14 November 2023

MiniBio: Iván Rey Suarez is a postdoctoral associate at a joined position at Universidad de los Andes in Colombia, and the Institute for Physical Science and Technology (IPST) at the University of Maryland, where he focuses on studying the mechanobiology of the cytoskeleton. Iván developed a passion for nature and for physics since an early