You have just two days to send your questions to monarch scientist Alfonso Alonso-Mejia whose biography you'll find below. (Since questions are due Wednesday, May 10th we included the English version, too.) Why don't you send a few questions in Spanish?
Send them to: jn_expert@informns.k12.mn.us
*********************************************************
Alfonso Alonso-Mejia nacio en la ciudad de Mexico el 18 de Junio de 1963. Vivio su infancia y juventud al lado de sus padres de quienes aprendio una gran apreciacion hacia la ciencias naturales. Con ellos viajo a casi todos los estados de la Republica Mexicana, aprendiendo y admirando la gran diversidad de culturas y ecosistemas que existen en Mexico.
En 1982, el entro a la Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico y se graduo en 1987 con un grado de Biologo. Para su trabajo de tesis, Alfonso paso varios meses estudiando a la mariposa monarca en Michoacan, Mexico, en la reserva especial de la mariposa monarca.
En Agosto de 1988, Alfonso empezo sus estudios de post-grado en en Departamento de Zoologia de la Universidad de Florida en Gainesville, Florida. Termino su maestria en ciencias bajo la direccion del Dr. Lincoln Brower en Mayo de 1991 e inmediatamente empezo sus estudios de Doctorado. Ahora el esta estudiando la interaccion que hay entre la estructura del bosque y la sobrevivencia de la mariposa monarca.El planea terminar su tesis a finales de Agosto, 1995.
***********************************************************
"Alfonso Alonso-Mejia was born on 18 June 1963 in Mexico City, Mexico, where he spent most of of his childhood. He started to get immersed in biological matters when traveling with his parents.
In 1982, he attended the Facultad de Ciencias at the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico (UNAM) and graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in biology in September 1987. For his bachelor thesis he spent several months during three years in the overwintering colonies of monarch butterflies, in Michoacoan, Mexico. In the fall of 1988, Alfonso began graduate studies in the Department of Zoology at the University of Florida, under the guidance of Dr. Lincoln P. Brower. He finished his master's degree in 1991 and immediatly started a Ph. D. program at UF were he is currently studying the best ways to protect the forest that the monarchs use to overwinter in Mexico. He plans to defend his dissertation at the end of the summer, 1995."