Felipe Zapata

Felipe Zapata is Associate Professor in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at UCLA and Co-Director of the Center for Tropical Research. His interdisciplinary research examines biodiversity evolution across phylogenetic, temporal and spatial scales, integrating genomics, phylogenetics, biogeography, and ecophysiology to understand diversification processes and inform conservation strategies.

Research employs field biology, museum science, and computational approaches to study tropical and desert plant radiations, biocultural diversity relationships, and conservation prioritization. Recent work focuses on scale-dependent biodiversity patterns, genomic signatures of speciation, and vulnerability assessments of ethnobotanical resources.

Publications demonstrate consistent focus on evolutionary mechanisms in plant systems, with recent expansion into biocultural conservation and sustainable development. Genomic approaches are increasingly prominent in research methodology.