Paniagua-Zambrana was born in La Paz, Bolivia on 13. May, 1973. Her love for nature stems from her childhood, when she played in the mountains while her father worked as a
geologist in the
Bolivian tin mines. Later, she decided to make a life career out of this passion, studying biology and later specializing in ethnobotany, a science that studies the use of plants by humans. In 1998, she earned her Bachelor of Science in Biology from the
Universidad Mayor de San Andrés in La Paz, studying under noted ecologist
Robin B. Foster. In 2005 she obtained her Master of Science from the
Aarhus University. She married ethnobotanist and sometime co-author Dr.
Rainer Bussmann. She currently works as an associate researcher at the Bolivian National
Herbarium in the Ecology Institute of the University of San Andrés (
Herbario Nacional de Bolivia - Instituto de Ecología de la Universidad Mayor de San Andrés). In an interview in April 2020, Paniagua-Zambrana expressed concerns about entering the indigenous territories where she normally conducts her research for fears of bringing
COVID-19 to local communities, and temporarily suspended her
fieldwork. == Scientific career and contributions ==