The University of the West Indies, Mona is pleased to announce the promotion of Dr Byron Wilson, Senior Lecturer in the Department of Life Sciences, Faculty of Science & Technology (formerly Pure & Applied Sciences) to the rank of Professor, with effect from October 3, 2012.
 
Byron Wilson holds the Bachelor of Arts in Zoology from the University of California, Berkley, and the Doctor of Philosophy degree in Zoology from the University of Washington (Seattle). He joined the staff of The UWI, Mona in 1998 as a Research Fellow and was appointed Lecturer in 2001 and later promoted to Senior Lecturer in 2007.
 
The newly appointed professor is an acknowledged authority on Jamaican biodiversity and a leader in efforts to conserve it. He has had a distinguished career in herpetology and conservation biology, an applied field aimed at averting species extinctions. It involves research that is important from a conceptual perspective, but also has significant value for contributing to the maintenance of Earth’s biodiversity. 
 
Throughout his career, Byron Wilson has helped to establish long-term conservation projects that have attracted wide international attention, including grants from the MacArthur Foundation, the International Iguana Foundation, the Global Environmental Facility, the Disney Worldwide Conservation Fund, Conservation International, and the Wildlife Conservation Society, among others. He is an internationally recognized authority on the herpetology of Jamaica and its conservation, having over the years, studied and promoted the conservation of the reptiles and amphibians that inhabit the island. 
 
Professor Wilson’s work initially focused on the Critically Endangered Jamaican iguana, his efforts in this area having helped to make this UWI-led effort a rare but widely known global conservation success story. In recent years, the focus of his research has expanded to consider other species (frogs, turtles, crocodiles, trees), as well as threats to the biodiversity of Jamaica posed by invasive species and habitat modification and destruction. 
 
Professor Wilson’s studies on the mongoose and other invasive mammals in Jamaica have led to a successful control programme in the Hellshire Hills that has been effective in improving survival among endangered herpetofauna.  Dr Wilson also rediscovered another reptile thought to have disappeared –the Blue-tailed Galliwasp – also in the Hellshire Hills. It is the only blue-tailed member of the family Diploglossidae in the West Indies, and was only known previously from the Portland Ridge Peninsula. All this has contributed to a better understanding of the possibilities and challenges faced by conservation biologists working in the West Indies and other islands in an area now recognised as a global biodiversity hotspot. 
 
In 2011 he was invited to deliver the 7th Annual EFJ Public Lecture at the Pegasus Hotel, and spoke on Jamaica’s current extinction crisis to an audience of over 400.
 
He also has a successful record as an educator, having taught courses at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. In addition to preparing the syllabus and lecture materials for new courses, he has also developed innovative field exercises, particularly for final year Environmental Biology majors. 
 
Professor Wilson has published widely in his field. He is co-editor of Volumes 1 and 11 of the book ‘Conservation of Caribbean Island Herpetofaunas’ and editor of the book “Jamaica: Land of Wood and Water’. His articles have appeared in journals including Ecology, Ecological Monographs, Oecologia, Physiological Zoology, Forest Ecology and Management, and Biological Invasions. 
 
In acknowledgement of his achievements, he has been recipient of the Jamaica Environmental Action Award (Wildlife Conservation category) as well as six Principal’s  Awards for Research (Best Publication in 2006 and 2012; Project Attracting the Most Research Funds in 2007, 2009 and 2011; and Best Researcher in 2012.
 
Byron Wilson is a member of the IUCN SSC Iguana Specialist Group and has been Head of the Jamaican Iguana Recovery Group since 2005.  He is also a member of the IUCN SSC’s specialist groups for frogs, Anolis lizards, Boas and Pythons, and small mammals, and sits on  NEPA’s Working Groups for Invasive Species and crocodiles.