Liset Rodríguez Achata

Biography

Rodríguez started her academic career in 2003 as a teaching assistant at the National Amazonian University of Madre de Dios (UNAMAD), later becoming a professor there. She is a registered researcher in the National Registry of Researchers of CONCYTEC and serves on the coordination team of the UNAMAD Scientific Collection of Ichthyofauna.

She has consulted for the Ministry of Energy and Mines on the Regional Energy Balance. At UNAMAD, she has held roles as head of the Environmental Laboratory and Director of the Office of Quality Control and Laboratory Management. Currently, she is editor-in-chief of the Amazonian Biodiversity Journal, published by UNAMAD, and advocates for environmental education in higher academic training.

Research

In 2022, Rodríguez collaborated with the National University of Engineering (UNI) on a clean technology system for gold extraction without mercury and with the University of Engineering and Technology (UTEC) on scaling waste-processing technologies from artisanal gold mining. That year she published in the Amazonian Biodiversity Journal an article on UNAMAD's scientific output and another on the environmental assessment of water quality in ponds formed by non-metallic mining in Madre de Dios.

In 2021, she advised a project assessing surface water quality in urban areas of the Peruvian Amazon. In 2019, she worked with Inkaterra on isolating, barcoding, and producing wild Amazonian fungi for the gastronomic market in Tambopata. In 2018, she collaborated with the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru on producing graphene from Amazonian forest waste, and in 2019 on eco-friendly plastics from biopolymers sourced from agroforestry residues.

In 2018, she was part of a team presenting the project 'Recovery Systems for Areas Degraded by Alluvial Gold Mining Using Local Plant Species with Economic and Ecosystem Potential in Madre de Dios,' funded by the Peruvian Amazon Research Institute (IIAP–MINAM). In 2016, she collaborated with José Carlos Mariátegui University on generating renewable energy from by-products of cattle and pig slaughtering through a pilot biodigester.

Did You Know?

• Rodríguez was recognized on March 8, 2023, in the discussion panel 'Challenges, Opportunities, and Perspectives for Women in Science' for her contributions to environmental research in the Amazon.
• On December 12, 2022, she was honored in the Fifth Edition of the National Water Culture Award, 'H2O Research 2021,' granted by the National Water Authority (ANA) through Resolution No. 0403-2022-ANA.