Carla Fabiana Crespo Melgar is a biochemist focused on increasing agricultural productivity as a crucial step to alleviate hunger. With her research, she is investigating the potential of using beneficial microorganisms and application protocols as biocontrollers, biofertilizers, bioinoculants and growth promoters for crop production in Bolivia and the region, with the aim of exploring ways that they can be produced locally by communities or small companies, once the technology and application protocols are validated.

Dr. Paniagua-Zambrana’s research focuses on documenting and protecting traditional knowledge of plant use by indigenous populations and local communities, especially in Bolivia. She works to provide local populations with tools that allow them to make decisions about the conservation of their natural resources and associated traditional knowledge. Dr. Paniagua-Zambrana’s research has mostly focused on native palms of the Andes and the Amazon.

She has worked consistently to disseminate the results of her research among the local communities with which she works. Her research has been incorporated into educational materials in local schools and has also served as important documentation protecting the traditional knowledge of local communities. The communities are enabled to elaborate strategies to conserve their natural resources, and encouraged to share and expand their knowledge regarding their use and maintenance.

Dr. Paniagua-Zambrana was born in La Paz, Bolivia. She received her PhD in Biological Sciences from the Autonomous University of Madrid in Spain in 2016. Dr. Paniagua-Zambrana is one of the most published researchers in Bolivia, according to a regional report by Elsevier. Her research has resulted in numerous scientific articles published in journals including Nature Plants, PlosOne, and the Journal of Ethnopharmacology, among others, and she also acts as a reviewer of numerous scientific journals. She has published more than 100 book chapters and 15 books.

In addition, she works with undergraduate, masters and doctoral students around the globe who are interested in ethnobotanical studies, many of them young women scientists. She is a member of the Society for Economic Botany, where she currently serves on the council, the Latin American Association of Botany, the Latin American Group of Ethnobotany – Bolivia Chapter, the Bolivian Organization for Women in Science, and the Organization for Women in Science for the Developing World (OWSD).