Leo Salas

Principal Quantitative Ecologist

My work at Point Blue is varied. I assist in the design, analysis and visualization of data for many projects across all research programs. However, I also spend some time developing and maintaining analyses and visualizations of data at the California Avian Data Center, and coordinating the Avian Knowledge Network.

I obtained my Bachelor’s degree in Ecology at the Universidad Simon Bolivar, Venezuela, where I studied the annual cycles of birds. My Masters is from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, studying tapirs in the Venezuelan Amazon, and my PhD, also from UMass, for which I researched arboreal marsupials in Papua New Guinea. After graduating from UMass I held jobs in Panama, Indonesian Borneo and Papua New Guinea, before coming to Point Blue. Besides publishing on the research subjects for my university degrees, I have publications about work on tree communities, spectacled bears, orangutans, and biodiversity. I also have extensive experience on data analysis and programming in several languages.

Although I have a strong interest in sports of any kind, my kids are my current passion. We can be found biking, skating, scootering, skateboarding, eating ice cream or drinking coffee in Petaluma and nearby towns, unless we are camping somewhere.