Gustavo Requena Santos

Faculty in Ecology

Gustavo Requena Santos stands in a forest, gently holding a daddy long-legs spider.

Gustavo grew up in Brazil, in close contact with the natural paradise of Tropical Rainforests. Inspired by conservation campaigns for the preservation of golden lion tamarins and sea turtles’ nesting sites, Gustavo became a field biologist. His passion for nature and science compelled him to do fieldwork in the familiar forests around his hometown in Southern Brazil, but also in the Amazon, Mexico, Panama, and Costa Rica.

For over 15 years, Gustavo conducted research on the ecology and evolution of Tropical daddy-longlegs, particularly their mating and parental behaviors. In 2017, he moved to the US and decided to shift his career from academic research to science education and outreach, advocating for the importance of science literacy and critical thinking to promote advances in education, community engagement, and social transformation. Since then, he has volunteered with many education-focused nonprofits across Connecticut (including the Connecticut Outdoor & Environmental Education Association and the Seedlings Educators Collaborative) and even founded his own science education initiative Science Yourself.

In these activities, Gustavo has been bridging his long experience as a scientist to grassroots, community-based education programs, particularly using environmental education to promote science literacy and critical thinking, helping re-connect children and their families to nature (especially after COVID-19 challenged years) and where audiences of all ages and backgrounds experience the scientific process first-hand by doing science themselves.

Gustavo joined Sterling College as Faculty in Ecology in August 2024, bringing his experience in academic research, field-based higher education, and community engagement & outreach to provide learning opportunities to our students that are rooted in a genuine intention to welcome and include everyone and centered on students’ interests and passions.

    • Bsc. Biology - Universidade Estadual de Campinas in 2005

    • MS Ecology and Natural Resources - Universidade Federal de Uberlândia in 2008

    • PhD Ecology - Universidade de São Paulo in 2012

    • Behavioral Ecology

    • Evolutionary Biology

    • Entomology

    • Theoretical Biology

    • Environmental Education

    • Science Education

    • Science Extension & Outreach

    • NS107A Foundations of Ecology

    • NS301 Field Ecology

    • NS331 Intro to Data Analysis

    • NS372B Science Communication

    • Nature Photography

    • Astronomy

    • Graphic Novels

    • Hiking

    • Cooking

    • “How to Bring Social Justice into the Curriculum and Help ALL Students See Themselves in Any Profession,” – as part of the student-led event “SOCIAL JUSTICE WEEK” at Sacred Heart University (CT, 2023)

    • Invited panelist to discuss the unique environmental challenges faced by Latine communities in Connecticut at “LATINE AND PUERTO RICAN VOICES FOR CLIMATE ACTION ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSION” (organized by SAVE THE SOUND & COMMISSION ON WOMEN, CHILDREN, SENIORS, EQUITY, AND OPPORTUNITY – CT, 2023)

    • Invited panelist to a roundtable discussion about Ag careers for the “#TEACHAG DAY VIRTUAL CELEBRATION” (organized by CONNECTICUT FUTURE FARMERS OF AMERICA – CT, 2023)

    • “What can we learn from weird creature’s behaviours?”, as part of the pre-events of the workshop “Interplay between parental care and sexual selection” at the University of Gothenburg (Sweden, 2018)

  • OPINION PIECES

    BOOK CHAPTERS:

    • Requena, GS, Munguía-Steyer, R & Machado, G. (2014). Paternal care and sexual selection in arthropods, pp. 201-233. In Macedo, RH & Machado, G (eds) Sexual selection. Academic Press.

    • Machado, G, Requena, GS, Toscano-Gadea, C, Stanley, E & Macías-Ordóñez, R. (2015). Male and female mate choice in harvestmen: general patterns and inferences on the underlying processes, pp 169-201. In Peretti, AV & Aisenberg, A (eds) Cryptic female choice in arthropods: Patterns, mechanisms and prospects. Springer, Cham.

    RECENT PEER-REVIEWED PAPERS:

    • Alissa, L. M., Machado, G., & Requena, G. S. (2024). Good body condition increases male attractiveness but not caring quality in a neotropical arachnid with male-only care. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, 78(2), 24.

    • Rios Moura, R., Oliveira Gonzaga, M., Silva Pinto, N., Vasconcellos‐Neto, J., & Requena, G. S. (2021). Assortative mating in space and time: patterns and biases. Ecology Letters, 24(5), 1089-1102.

    • Quesada-Hidalgo, R., Solano-Brenes, D., Requena, G. S., & Machado, G. (2019). The good fathers: efficiency of male care and the protective role of foster parents in a Neotropical arachnid. Animal Behaviour, 150, 147-155.

    • Nolazco, S., & Requena, G. S. (2018). Flexible compensation of uniparental care in an arachnid species: things are not always what they seem. Animal Behaviour, 143, 67-81.

    • Requena, G. S., & Alonzo, S. H. (2017). Sperm competition games when males invest in paternal care. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 284(1860), 20171266.

    • A complete list of peer-reviewed articles can be found here.

    • “Humankind: A Hopeful History” by Rutger Bregman

    • “Permanent Record” by Edward Snowden

    • Any Calvin & Hobbes collection, by Bill Watterson

Email Gustavo