Dr. Jorge Urbán is a Professor of the Department of the Coastal and Marine Sciences of the Autonomous University of Baja California Sur at La Paz, B.C.S., where he has worked for 30 years. He received his Ph. D. from the National University of México (UNAM). He began his research on whales since 1982 when he initiated the first long term study on humpbacks in Mexico.

 

Jorge has presented papers on this topic at more than 70 international meetings and has written more than 100 scientific publications about the great whales and dolphins of the Gulf of California. He has special interest in the fin, humpback, and gray whales, as well as beaked whales from the Mexican Pacific. From 1991 to 1993 he was president of the Mexican Marine Mammologist Society (SOMEMMA). 

 

He is co-chair of the Subcommittee of Conservation Management Populations of the Scientific Committee of the International Whaling Commission; member of the Cetacean Specialist Group of the IUCN; member of the Scientific Advisory Committee of the Society for Marine Mammalogy (USA); and Vocal of the Latin American Society of Specialists in Aquatic Mammals.  He had been advisor of more than 50 graduate and undergraduate students. Since 2006 is co-director of the Laguna San Ignacio Ecosystem Science Project. He is the founder and leader of the Marine Mammal Research Program of the UABCS.