Luis E. Eguiarte Fruns

Eguiarte is one of Mexico's most prolific and creative students of evolution. He helped start the field of conservation genetics in Mexico, a country that is among the world's most biodiverse. Mexico is one of the centers of early human plant domestication and Eguiarte has exploited this history by employing genetic approaches to analyze the domestication and origins of important Mexican plants such as maize, beans and squashes. He and his colleagues have unraveled the recent adaptive radiation of Agave driven by the aridification of North America, thereby providing deep insights into how climate change can drive ecosystem evolution.