Carlos
Portillo
Assistant Professor
Texas Tech University
Dr. Portillo-Quintero is an Assistant Professor of Geospatial Technologies in the Department of Natural Resources Management at Texas Tech University, USA. He obtained his Biology degree in University of Zulia, in Venezuela in 2004 and a PhD in Earth and Atmospheric Sciences in the University of Alberta in Canada in 2010. During these time, he performed various GIS and Remote Sensing analyses as part of an international effort led by the InterAmerican Institute of Global Change Research to understand the extent and geographical distribution of pristine and disturbed tropical dry forests in the Americas. As a postdoctoral research fellow in the Venezuelan Institute of Scientific Research in Venezuela, he worked on understanding regional deforestation patterns in the Northern Andes in South America using GIS modeling techniques. Before taking the Assistant Professor position at NRM in Texas Tech, he was working as a postdoctoral research fellow in the Center of Earth Observation sciences of the University of Alberta (Canada) in the implementation of wireless ground sensor networks for hypertemporal monitoring of environmental variables. As an assistant professor at Texas Tech University, Dr. Portillo-Quintero has started to implement a line of research for understanding land cover and land use change in threatened ecosystems of the southwestern USA as well as biodiversity hotspots of Mesoamerica, the Caribbean and the northern tropical Andes, and its implications for biological conservation.