Mauricio De la Maza-Benignos

Mauricio de la Maza-Benignos (July 27, 1970 –) is a Mexican Conservationist, Naturalist and Zoologist. He is also a member of Mexico's National System of Researchers. In addition to his work in ichthyology, he is an agronomist and zootechnician, a jurist, an administrator, and an editor. He earned his bachelor's degree at the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education, a Master of Business Administration at The University of Lancaster, a Ph.D. summa cum laude, at the Autonomous University of Nuevo León, and studied Law, under a merit scholarship at the TecMilenio University. In 1994 he obtained the “Best students of Mexico Award” by the “National Permanent Committee for the Best Students of Mexico”, and in 2014 he was awarded first place in the “Dr. José Álvarez Del Villar” prize for his doctoral thesis, by the Mexican Ichthyology Society. He developed his doctoral thesis under the direction of Professor and Ichthyologist Ma. de Lourdes Lozano-Vilano, with whom he continues to do research. He also collaborates with geneticist and ichthyologist Dr. Evan W. Carson at UNM, mainly in the area of conservation genetics. In 2015 he was awarded the UANL Research Prize to the best scholar paper in the Natural Sciences during 2014. From 2006―2011, he served as Director for the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), Chihuahuan Desert Program; and from 2011― as Conservation Science Director and Chief Executive Officer for Mexican NGO, Pronatura Noreste.