Eloy Rodriguez is a Mexican-American biochemist

Biochemistry

Biochemistry, sometimes called biological chemistry, is the study of chemical processes in living organisms, including, but not limited to, living matter. Biochemistry governs all living organisms and living processes...

. He is the James Perkins Professor of Environmental Studies

Environmental studies

Environmental studies is the academic field which systematically studies human interaction with the environment. It is a broad interdisciplinary field of study that includes the natural environment, built environment, and the sets of relationships between them...

 at Cornell University

Cornell University

Cornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...

. He was born in Edinburg

Edinburg, Texas

Edinburg is a city in and the county seat of Hidalgo County, Texas, United States. The population was 77,100 at the 2010 census. The University of Texas–Pan American, the only fully accredited four-year university in the Rio Grande Valley, is located in Edinburg.Edinburg is part of the...

, Texas

Texas

Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...

.

Collaborating with primatologist Richard Wrangham

Richard Wrangham

Richard W. Wrangham is a British primatologist. He is the Ruth Moore Professor of Biological Anthropology at Harvard University and his research group is now part of the newly established Department of Human Evolutionary Biology....

, Rodriguez introduced the concept of zoopharmacognosy

Zoopharmacognosy

Zoopharmacognosy refers to the process by which non-Human animals self-medicate, by selecting and using plants, soils, and insects to treat and prevent disease. Coined by Dr...

.

Rodriguez graduated from the University of Texas, Austin with a B.S.

Bachelor of Science

A Bachelor of Science is an undergraduate academic degree awarded for completed courses that generally last three to five years .-Australia:In Australia, the BSc is a 3 year degree, offered from 1st year on...

 in 1969 and a Ph.D.

Ph.D.

A Ph.D. is a Doctor of Philosophy, an academic degree.Ph.D. may also refer to:* Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*Piled Higher and Deeper, a web comic strip*PhD: Phantasy Degree, a Korean comic series* PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...

 in Phytochemistry

Phytochemistry

Phytochemistry is in the strict sense of the word the study of phytochemicals. These are chemicals derived from plants. In a narrower sense the terms are often used to describe the large number of secondary metabolic compounds found in plants. Many of these are known to provide protection against...

 and Plant Biology

Botany

Botany, plant science, or plant biology is a branch of biology that involves the scientific study of plant life. Traditionally, botany also included the study of fungi, algae and viruses...

 in 1975. Later, at the University of British Columbia

University of British Columbia

The University of British Columbia is a public research university. UBC’s two main campuses are situated in Vancouver and in Kelowna in the Okanagan Valley...

, he received medical postdoctoral training in Medicinal Botany. He was an Assistant Professor of Ecology

Ecology

Ecology is the scientific study of the relations that living organisms have with respect to each other and their natural environment. Variables of interest to ecologists include the composition, distribution, amount , number, and changing states of organisms within and among ecosystems...

 and Evolutionary Biology at the University of California, Irvine

University of California, Irvine

The University of California, Irvine , founded in 1965, is one of the ten campuses of the University of California, located in Irvine, California, USA...

 from 1976 to 1994 before joining the faculty at Cornell.

Other interests

Rodriguez also serves as a faculty advisor for the Science Organization of Latinos at Cornell.

Rodriguez is the director of the Cornell University Esbaran Amazon Field Laboratory located in the Amazon Rainforest near Iquitos

Iquitos

Iquitos is the largest city in the Peruvian rainforest, with a population of 370,962. It is the capital of Loreto Region and Maynas Province.Located on the Amazon River, it is only above sea level, although it is more than from the mouth of the Amazon at Belém on the Atlantic Ocean...

, Peru

Peru

Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....

.

Rodriguez is the founder of the California Alliance for Minority Participation (CAMP) program funded by the National Science Foundation. As a result the CAMP program spread from its home campus, University of California at Irvine, to the 9 other branches of the University of California.

External links

• Profile at Cornell