Ryan Jones, PhD, is the Director of Latin America Programs & Grants in the Office of International Education at the University of Arizona. He received his PhD in evolutionary genetics from the University of Colorado and subsequently furthered his training with postdoctoral appointments in the experimental bubonic plague lab at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control & Prevention and at the University of Sydney’s Institute for Agriculture. After completing his training, Ryan was a professor at Montana State University where he was the Principal Investigator of a microbial ecology laboratory. His interdisciplinary research focused on disease ecology, conservation biology, ecosystem services, and the evolution of microbes, plants, and animals. His research has taken him across the globe, with projects in Peru, Bolivia, Costa Rica, Mexico, Australia, Tibet, Iceland, and the United States. He has published over twenty peer-reviewed articles in prestigious science journals and has delivered invited seminars to universities and professional societies across the world. Prior to his current position Ryan was awarded a AAAS Science & Technology Policy Fellowship, a Postdoctoral Fellowship from the American Society for Microbiology, and is a National Geographic Society Explorer. In his current roll, Ryan creates partnerships between the University of Arizona and international universities in support of the University of Arizona's Microcampus Program in order to enhance domestic and international research and educational opportunities.

(Photo: Ryan on a National Geographic-funded flea-hunting trip in the Peruvian Amazon with a large group of helpers from the local community.)