Eduardo Santana Castellón, adjunct faculty in the Department of Forest and Wildlife Ecology, was conferred by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology the distinction of “emeritus membership” to its Administrative Board. The honor is “in recognition of his exceptional service, leadership and enduring contributions”and was approved during the Board’s spring 2026 meeting, held on May 31. Linda R. Macaulay, chair of the Cornell Lab Administrative Board, told Santana that the appointment “formalizes what has long been true: you are a permanent part of the Lab’s story.”

Santana is a three-time UW–Madison alum (BSc ’79, MSc ‘85, PhD ’00) and is currently the founding director of the Environmental Sciences Museum of the University of Guadalajara. He also serves on the Board of the Aldo Leopold Foundation and has been a visiting professor and honorary scholar at the Nelson Institute of Environmental Studies, the Latin American, Caribbean and Iberian Studies Program, the Global Health Institute and the School of Human Ecology. He was recently granted the “emeritus professor” distinction, the highest honor conferred by the University of Guadalajara and the Ecological Merit Award by the State Congress of Jalisco.

Santana’s formal relationship with the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology spans more than two decades since he was first elected in 2004. However, he heard about the Lab in 1975 when Joseph Hickey became his undergraduate advisor at UW–Madison. Hickey served on the Board of the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology from 1978 to 1981. Stanley A. Temple served as Santana’s master’s thesis advisor, and co-directed, with Timothy C. Moermond, his joint Ph.D. thesis in zoology and wildlife ecology. Temple served on the Cornell Lab of Ornithology Board from 1985 to 2002. Hickey, with his 1943  book promoting the gathering of data by birdwatchers, and Temple, with his 1987 book on the migration of Wisconsin birds, are considered pioneers in ornithological citizen science.

With more than 250 employees and an annual budget of about $50 million USD, the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology is the largest university-based ornithology institute in the world. It is internationally recognized for creating and operating the citizen-science on-line platform eBird. It is the world’s largest biodiversity-related citizen science project by observation volume.

In an unconventional way, Santana followed the lead in citizen-science of his professors and colleagues at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. México has one of the highest numbers of disappeared (missing) citizens and the highest number of volunteer collectives of citizens, mostly women, that are searching for their missing loved ones. By interviewing mothers of disappeared sons and daughters and systematizing their search efforts, Santana and his colleagues demonstrated that these volunteer citizen collectives are doing bona fide citizen scienceaccording to the criteria of the European Association of Citizen Science. He also promoted, with other  Mexican universities and governmental institutions, the establishment of experimental plots at various University of Guadalajara campuses to apply environmental sciences to finding clandestine graves of missing persons. Santana has stated in his publications that “finding clandestine graves is, in a way, similar to finding an eagle’s nest. You can’t ask the eagles, and you can’t ask the criminals. So, you can apply techniques similar to those used to determine habitat selection or potential niches of wildlife species.”

Santana has always promoted the Wisconsin Ideainternationally. In 2002, he drafted two reports on how to bring greater diversity to the Department of Forest and Wildlife Ecology and increase its internationalization programs. In 1988 and then again in 1992, he promoted, with Hugh Iltis (botany) and Thomas Yuill (Nelson Institute), the signing of the first academic cooperation agreements between UW–Madison and the University of Guadalajara. The agreement has been ongoing until today and is considered is considered one of the most successful internationalization programs on campus.