My first memory of Professor Veloso was on a visit as an undergraduate student to the University of Chile in Valparaíso, before he arrived at the Faculty of Sciences, teaching us about natural history. His great passion for natural sciences and evolution was later consecrated at the Faculty of Sciences (UCH), when he directed the MAB project in the Andes of northern Chile. There, observing the mountains and their fauna (of course, the reptiles and amphibians that were his favorites) he shared his experience with young teachers and apprentices, including myself. With Mary Kalin and Carolina Villagrán, we completed the picture of the high-Andean ecosystems, with the bulky (and fragile) collections of flora from the northern Andes, to which we later added the knowledge of the local inhabitants. It was a great effort that lasted several hard days in the field in consecutive years, where Professor Veloso enjoyed the strenuous excursions, touring the ecosystems of Chile.
For the next generation, who met Professor Veloso in the 1980s, we were inspired by his passion for herpetology at the same time as his concern for the conservation of the ecosystems of the north and of all of Chile. In his office on the Juan Gómez Milla campus, he was a teacher who always gave us time to integrate science, culture, and politics into his conversations in a decade in which the transdiscipline of biological conservation had not yet been formalized. In all of us, Master Veloso has left an imprint that inspires us in the work that we forge today at the Institute of Ecology and Biodiversity, projecting his legacy.
Juan Armesto and Ricardo Rozzi
Institute of Ecology and Biodiversity
www.ieb-chile.cl
Source: https://ieb-chile.cl/noticia/remembranza-del-maestro-alberto-veloso-1940-2020/
