Enrique Forero

UNU Council Member; Chair of the Regional Focal Point for Latin America and the Caribbean of the International Science Council

Institute
UNU Centre

Dr. Enrique Forero was Chair of the International Science Council Regional Focal Point for Latin America and the Caribbean.

 

It is with great sadness that UNU has learned of the death of Dr. Enrique Forero, a member of the UNU Council since May 2022. Dr. Forero died on 5 September 2023 at the age of 80. 

Dr. Forero held a botany degree from the National University of Colombia and a PhD from the City University of New York. He was professor at the Institute of Natural Sciences of the National University of Colombia where he also held the positions of Director of the Colombian National Herbarium, Head of the Botany Section, first director of the Graduate Program in Systematics and Director of the Institute, and Dean of the Faculty of Sciences of the University.

He also served as Director of Research at the Missouri Botanical Garden, International Consultant at the National Center for Genetic Resources (Brazil), Director of the Institute of Systematic Botany of the New York Botanical Garden, and visiting and/or adjunct professor at universities and research centers in Brazil, Colombia, Denmark and the United States.

Dr. Forero laid the foundations for the creation of the Colombian Herbaria Association, founded the Latin American Botanical Association, and was a founding member of the Scientific Committee of the Latin American Botanical Network.

For 20 years, Dr. Forero was actively involved in biodiversity conservation worldwide through his affiliation with the International Union for the Conservation of Nature´s Species Survival Commission and the joint IUCN-WWF Plants Advisory Group; he was the Colombian and South and Central American representative to the Convention on International Traffic of Endangered Species of Flora and Fauna (CITES). Dr Forero was President of the Colombian Academy of Exact, Physical and Natural Sciences from 2013 to 2022, and was President of the Colombian College of Academies from 2015 to 2017. He served in the Executive Board of the Inter American Network of the Academies of Science (IANAS), the ISC Freedom and Responsibility in Science Committee, the IAP Membership Committee, and the Strategic Committee of the Science Panel for the Amazon. Recently, through his leadership, the Colombian Academy of Sciences became the ISC Regional Focal Point for Latin America and the Caribbean.