Isaac Ochoterena

Jacobo Isaac Ochoterena Mendieta (1885–1950) was a Mexican autodidact, biologist, botanist, plant collector, researcher, educator and academic who published over 230 scientific works. Initially a primary school teacher, he went on to become a professor at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (National Autonomous University of México, UNAM), a researcher at the government-funded research center Dirección de Estudios Biológicos (DEB), and Dean of the Biology Institute at UNAM.

Early life and education Isaac Ochoterena was born in Atlixco, Puebla, to Colonel Pedro Ochoterena and Virginia Mendieta de Ochoterena. where his teachers included Gabino Barreda, Justo Sierra Méndez, and naturalist .

When Ochoterena was 16 his father died, On the advice of Justo Sierra, Beyond this early training, he was an autodidact, entirely self-taught.

In 1907, invited Ochoterena to move to Gómez Palacio, Durango, to teach primary school. Ochoterena was later appointed as a school director in Lerdo, Durango, and as a school inspector for the state of Durango, holding the position of Inspector of Public Instruction until 1913. In 1914 Ochoterena became Director General of Education for the state of San Luis Potosí. In 1915 Ochoterena began teaching histology classes there. From 1916 to 1918, Ochoterena worked with the DEB, in charge of the Vegetable Biology Section. He was exposed to Herrera's ideas about biological evolution during this time, but later opposed them.

In 1929, a major political and educational reorganization occurred, with control of departments shifting from the government to the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de México (National Autonomous University of Mexico, UNAM). Ochoterena also became head of the National Museum of Natural History in Mexico City, which was part of the Biological Institute.

During the same reorganization, the National School of Agronomy and Veterinary Medicine became the National School of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Production (Medicina Veterinaria y Zootecnia) of UNAM. ) The faculty at UNAM was the only veterinary school serving Mexico and other Latin American countries until 1957.

After taking charge of UNAM's newly created Institute of Biology, Ochoterena offered Bravo Hollis the leadership of the National Herbarium, where she specialized in the Cactaceae family. Ochoterena continued to teach at the National Preparatory School. In 1939, when UNAM's Faculty of Sciences was founded, he became head of the Departamento de Biología of the Facultad de Ciencias at UNAM. In 1946 he was named researcher emeritus and honorary director of the Institute of Biology of UNAM.

Awards and honors

Ochoterena held various honors and was a member of numerous scholarly societies:

1929/1930, Academia Nacional de Ciencias Antonio Alzate, Mexico's National Academy of Sciences 1946, researcher emeritus and honorary director, Institute of Biology, UNAM Hon. President, Sociedad Mexicana de Zoología

Eponymous species At least 15 species have been named after Isaac Ochoterena

Abronia ochoterenai (arboreal alligator lizard) Hydroides ochotereana (worm) Ictalurus ochoterenai (Chapala catfish) Ochoterenaea colombiana, the only species in the monotypic genus of flowering plants Ochoterenaea

Archives Harvard Library, Center for the History of Medicine (Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine) Richard P. Strong papers Office Files: Series 2, Nat D - O Ochoterena, Isaac, Dr, 1931-1932

Selected publications Cactáceas de México, 1922 Lecciones de biologia, por Isaac Ochoterena, 1922/1923 Nota acerca de la presencia de fibras aferentes en el ganglio de Corti y en otros exteroceptores, 1926 Tratado elemental de histologia general, 1938 Tratado elemental de biología, 1942 Lecciones acerca del órgano del oído, sustentadas en el Colegio nacional, 1943