On November 5, WINGS will induct four new Fellows during our 2026 Women of Discovery celebration in New York City. In a special Q&A series, we are sharing a little bit about each honoree. Dr. Rosa Vásquez Espinoza is a PhD chemical biologist and conservation leader behind a global movement to protect wild pollinators and the Amazon. Raised between the Peruvian Andes and rainforest, she bridges cutting-edge science with ancestral knowledge to drive real-world environmental change. She is the Founder of Amazon Research Internacional, working across the Amazon basin to protect biodiversity, empower communities and build climate resilience. Her work has led to the world’s first legal recognition of an insect’s rights and new models for nature-based economies.
Tell us your story. How did you get involved in science and your field specifically?
My grandmother, a traditional healer from Peru, inspired my curiosity about nature from a
very young age as I grew up between the city, the Amazon and the Andes, while my father introduced me to science, especially genetics. Together, they shaped the way I see the world.
I became fascinated with understanding life through both an Indigenous lens and a scientific one, which led me to become the first scientist in my family and eventually to specialize in chemical biology. I wanted to understand the chemistry and genetics behind the natural world, from medicinal plants to microorganisms and biodiversity.
What is something you would like people to understand about your field and work?
I would like people to understand that the natural world communicates in languages we are only beginning to understand. Humans rely heavily on words, but nature communicates through chemistry, scent, behavior, and complex ecological relationships that science is still uncovering.
I’m especially fascinated by chemistry as a hidden language between plants, animals, fungi, and microorganisms. I also think we often overlook the smaller species in conservation. Many of the most ignored organisms, like stingless bees, are actually holding ecosystems together and may carry some of the greatest solutions for our future.
What are the greatest barriers to more women working in science?
To me, one of the greatest barriers is the lack of visible examples of women succeeding in science in their own way. Many women are naturally interdisciplinary; we connect ideas, cultures, communities, creativity, and data, but science can still feel too rigid or narrow. I think more women need to see that there is not only one way to be a scientist. You can build your own path, work across disciplines, and still keep your authentic voice. Representation matters, not only in who is present, but in showing the many different ways science can be done.
What gets you up in the morning?
What gets me up in the morning is knowing that, even as a small independent team, we’ve been able to create hyper-local work with global impact. Seeing how actions taken in one community or one small corner of the Amazon can influence conservation, science, policy, and global conversations is incredibly motivating.
I’m also driven by the idea that we can help shape a new way of doing science and exploration – one that is more human, interdisciplinary, and Indigenous-led.
What’s your next challenge?
Our next challenge is scaling our work in a way that remains sustainable while protecting the core values and ways of working that make it meaningful. As we grow, it’s important for us to stay deeply connected to communities, science, and the Indigenous-led approach at the heart of everything we do.
A major focus now is building long-term, sustainable support that allows this work to continue without the limiting fear that we may not be able to support our team past one or two years.
Describe yourself in three words.
Resilient, kind, creative.
Links:
https://edition.cnn.com/2025/12/18/world/video/stingless-bees-peru-amazon-c2e-spc