The 2015 William T. Hornaday Award from the American Society of Mammalogists is José F. González-Maya, a doctoral candidate at Instituto de Ecología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México for this award. José is widely recognized for his extensive contributions to mammal conservation in northern Latin America through his efforts in educating students, building collaborations between NGOs and governmental agencies, and through international work with the IUCN. For those contributions to Neotropical mammal conservation, he was just awarded the Future for Nature Award. Although still a doctoral student, he has been active as an advisor (>30 undergraduate and graduate theses), instructor (8 conservation courses), and organizer, helping to build and mentor an enthusiastic group of young mammalian conservation biologists in Costa Rica, Mexico, and Colombia. He has developed monitoring plans for protected areas (e.g. Tayrona National Park in the Caribbean region of northern Colombia) and using those experiences, he has helped design and implement plans elsewhere in Latin America through OAS and University for International Cooperation.
José is currently co-Chair of the IUCN Small Carnivore Working Group. He has developed theColombian Caribbean Felid Conservation Plan which aligned institutions, communities and policy-makers for conservation of mammals. He also contributed to the National Conservation Strategy of Jaguar in Mexico. This student is also research active, publishing more than 40 papers to date on mammals and mammalian conservation in regional and international journals. He has helped found two new journals (Latin American Journal of Conservation and Mammalogy Notes), served on several other editorial boards, and organized numerous symposia on mammalian conservation. In all, José F. González-Maya accomplishments related to mammalian conservation to date are extremely impressive.