Kathrin Barboza Márquez was born in 1983 and grew up in
Cochabamba, Bolivia. She is the only daughter of Mario Pablo Barboza Céspedes and María Alcira Márquez Zurita. She attended the
Universidad Mayor de San Simón (UMSS) and studied at the Center of Biodiversity and Genetics. In 2003, Barboza Márquez was studying biology with a focus on conservation. As punishment for losing a bet with friends, she had to attend a lecture on bats by Dr. Luis Aguirre, a visiting professor and bat expert. Little did Barboza Márquez know that it would change the course of her life and career. "I went and was immediately hooked by everything I heard," she remembers with a smile. "I didn't know how important they [bats] were, that there were so many variations, that they ate so many things." "Generally, people have negative perceptions about bats: that they are bad luck, that they suck blood, that they're a menace, but that's not true," Kathrin shares. As a student, she researched the reproductive patterns of fruit bats for her thesis and worked with her mentor Aideé Vargas to conduct a year-long expedition to track down the Nariz de Espada (the sword-nosed bat), a species believed to have become extinct in Bolivia since the early 1930s. The species, known as the Bolivian
sword-nosed bat (
Lonchorhina aurita) is now protected in an area of the
Santa Cruz Department known as the Ecological Sanctuary of the Town of San Juan de Corralito located in the
Ángel Sandoval Province. and their benefits to society. Primarily, the two types of bats are insect-eating and pollinating. Those that eat insects provide important pest-control services to
zoomophilous plants including the agave from which tequila is made,
mangoes,
bananas and
guavas. As part of her doctorate research, Barboza Márquez studied the bat species in Madrid in conjunction with the
Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales, where 27 of the native bat species are endangered. After her research in Madrid was complete, Barboza Márquez returned to Cochabamba to finish the work on her PhD and participate in projects with the Conservation of Bats in Bolivia project and the Latin American Network for the Conservation of Bats. "Being a woman in science is really a privilege, especially in my country," Kathrin shares. "I have had some cases of machismo and I realised how often we normalise it or don't speak up for ourselves. There is not only discrimination for being a female scientist but also for being young. My merit and the value of my work were questioned several times because I am a young woman scientist." To see more young women in the conservation field, Barboza Márquez suggests that schools and universities "create spaces for young girls to engage in conversations with women in the field." For girls interested in pursuing careers as conservationists, Barboza Márquez advises studying biology at university. In the fall of 2019, fires ravaged over 4.2 million acres of land in Bolivia, including the
Chiquitano forest, a unique ecoregion where Barboza Márquez worked for six years. From her current home in
La Paz, Barboza Márquez worked to assist the devastated lands, which included educating the public about the fires and their effects on Bolivian nature and wildlife. "We are gathering information so we can publish as much as possible about the problem and make people aware so we can unite in the efforts to save what's left," she shares. Barboza Márquez knows that there's a lot of work ahead in the fight to protect Bolivia's biodiversity and bats, but through her research and advocacy, she is making progress every day for the country's natural habitats and mammals, particularly her two-taloned friends. Now with over a decade of experience under her belt, Barboza Márquez has taught bat bioacoustic courses across
Bolivia,
Brazil,
Costa Rica,
Peru,
Spain and
Uruguay. She currently works as an associate investigator of
mammalogy, the study of mammals, at the Natural History Museum Alcide d'Orbigny. She also teaches courses on fieldwork, flora and fauna inventories and biodiversity at the environmental education startup, Natural Zone. In addition to biology, Barboza Marquez enjoys the practice of
pilates, to which she dedicates between four and seven hours a day. That activity that started accidentally, but has become another of her passions. She is currently an instructor and board member of Mundo Pilates, a center specialized in that technique in Cochabamba. "I learned about Pilates because of an injury that I had in my back due to an accident that I suffered on one of my trips. I liked it, I was cured and began to become aware of the importance of good posture. It helps me clear my mind," she says. She also confesses his interest in baking and on her days off her greatest entertainment is watching a good movie at home. ==Accomplishments==