Arturo Gómez Pompa, Mexican / US botanist and ecologist (Ciudad de Mexico 21 October 1934 – California 17 September 2025)

Regarded as world authority on ecology of tropical forests, studying their mechanisms of regeneration  (about 7,900 citations by Google Scholar)

Developed a method for studying ecology in tropical areas

Un método para el estúdio ecológico en regiones tropicales. Mem. Congr. Mex. Botanica (1963)

Authored a paper became a classical

With S. Guevara & C. Vazquez Yanes. The tropical rain forest: a non-renewable resource. Science (1972)

Developed a botanical database using computers for storage and organization of the information independently of Theodore Crovetto in United States (1967)

With L. Alonso & L. Scheinvar. Sistema automático de recuperación de información para el Herbario Nacional del Instituto de Biologia. Anales Inst. Biol. 38(1):203-50, 1967

With O.E. Plummer. Video floras: a new tool for systematic botany. Taxon 39(4):576-85, 1990

Papers with more than 100 citations

With P. Lubinsky, S. Bory, J. Hernandez Hernandez & S.C. Kim. Origins and dispersal of culivated Vanilla (Vanilla planifolia Jacks., Orchidaceae). Econ. Bot. 62(2):127-38, 2008

With P. Lubinsky, K.M. Cameron, M.C. Molina, M. Wong, S. Lepers-Andrejewski et al. Neotropical roots of a Polynesian spice: the hybrid origin of Tahitian vanilla (Vanilla tahitensis) (Orchidaceae). Am. J. Botany 95(8):1040-7, 2008

With M.F. Allen & E.B. Allen. Effects of mycorrhizae and non-target organisms on restoration of a seasonal tropical forest in Quintana Roo, Mexico: factors limiting tree establishment. Restor. Ecol. 13(2):325-33, 2005

With E.B. Allen, M.F. Allen, L. Edgerton-Warburton & L. Corkidi. Impacts of early and late-seral mycorrhizae during restoration in seasonal tropical forest, Mexico. Ecol. Appl. 13(6):1701-17, 2003

With A. Kaus. From pre-Hispanic to future conservation alternatives: lessons from Mexico. Proceed. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 96(11):5982-6, 1999

With R. Whitkus, M. de la Cruz & L. Mota Bravo. Genetic diversity and relationships of cacao (Theobroma cacao L.) in Southern Mexico. Theor. Appl. Genetics 96(5):621-7, 1998 

With A. Kaus. Taming the wilderness myth. BioScience 42(4):271-9, 1992

With J.S. Flores & M.A. Fernandez. The sacred cacao groves of the Maya. Latin Am. Antiquity 1(3):247-57, 1990

On Maya silviculture. Mexican Studies 3(1):1-17, 1987

With J. Salvador Flores & V. Sosa. The’pet kot’: a man-made tropical forest of the Maya (1987)

With C. Vazquez-Yanes. Studies on the secondary succession of tropical lowlands: the life cycle of secondary species (1974)

With S. Guevara. Seeds from surface soils in a tropical region of Veracruz, Mexico. J. Arnold Arbor. 53(3):312-35, 1972   

Posible papel de la vegetación secundaria en la evolución de la flora tropical. Biotropica 12(1):125-35, 1971

DESCRIBED PLANTAE SPECIES

Diospyros riojae 1964

Hydrangea nebulicola 1968 with Nevling

Hymenophyllum saenzianum 1970

Isoetes tryoniana 1970

Polypodium rodriguezianum 1970

Robinsonella mirandae 1962

Thelypteris villana 1970

Yucca lacandonica 1962 with Valdes

HONOURS

Golden Ark Medal, Government of Netherlands (1984)

Tyler Prize for Environment (1994)

Chevron Conservation Medal

David Fairchild Medal, US National Garden