Prof. Dr. Fausto O. Sarmiento directs the Neotropical Montology Collaboratory at the Department of Geography of the University of Georgia. His research straddles critical biogeography and landscape ecology of mountains for biocultural diversity conservation. He was Regional Editor for Latin America for the journal Mountain Research and Development, and is Editorial Board member of Pirineos, the Journal of Mountain Ecology, the Journal of Mountain Science, the Journal of High Andean Research and the Annals of the AAG. He serves in advisory boards of global mountain organizations and represented the International Human Dimension Program of Global Environmental Change to the Science Board of the Mountain Research Initiative (MRI). He was chair of the Mountain Geography Specialty Group (2002-3 and 2014-5) of the Association of American Geographers (AAG), is chair of the International Geographical Union’s Commission on Mountain Studies (IGU), and former president of the Andean Mountains Association (AMA). Currently, he is deputy Vice Chair (Capacity Building) of the Mountain Biome of the World Commission of Protected Areas (WCPA), member of the Board of the Satoyama Initiative of the United Nations University (UNU), member of the board of the Earth Ethics Institute (EEI) and member of the Protected Landscapes Task Force in the World Conservation Union (IUCN).Prof. Dr. Alexey Gunya runs the center of mountain research at the Institute of Geography of the Russian Academy of Sciences. His research lies in the field of geography of mountain regions, interaction between development and conflicts, and landscape dynamic. He has strong regional expertise in the Caucasus and Central Asia. He is the head of the Mountain Group MAB-6 /Institute of Geography, Russian Academy of Sciences, the Vice Chair of the International Geographical Union’s Commission on Mountain Studies (IGU), member of the Science Leadership Council of the Mountain Research Initiative (MRI) (2016-2019), continues to serve as a member of the MRI Mountain Governance Working Group, member of the Science and Knowledge Advisory Committee of the Mountain Partnership. He was Editor for the journal Sustainable Development of Mountain Territories (2014-2022) and is Editorial Board member of the Journal of Mountain Science.
