Dr. Eliécer Gutiérrez is originally from Venezuela, where he completed a Licenciatura degree in Biology at the Universidad de los Andes. He then continued his studies at the City University of New York, obtaining a Ph.D. in Ecology, Evolutionary Biology and Behavior in 2012. Dr. Gutiérrez obtained the prestigious Peter Buck Fellowship from the National Museum of Natural History of the Smithsonian Institution, where he was a postdoctoral researcher from 2012 to 2015. Since that year, he has been a research associate of Smithsonian Institution. In 2016 he moved to Brazil, where he worked as a postdoctoral fellow at Universidade de Brasília, and then, in 2017, he accepted a position as visiting professor at Universidade Federal de Santa Maria, in the Rio Grande do Sul state. Dr. Gutiérrez is interested on a broad arrange of empirical, methodological, and conceptual questions pertaining to systematics, biogeography, and evolutionary ecology. Most of his work has either focused on or employed data of Neotropical marsupials, rodents, bats, and artiodactyls. His research and perspective pieces have been published in journals including Journal of Mammalogy, Mammal Review, Ecography, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, Ecology and Evolution, Ecography, American Museum Novitates, Nature, and Science. Dr. Gutiérrez is heavily involved in education of students through university courses at the undergraduate and graduate levels, mentoring students' research, and participating on workshops and invited seminars at universities. Congratulations Dr. Eliécer Gutiérrez!