Bernardo Villa Ramírez

Born on May 4, 1911, in Teloloapan, Guerrero, he first studied in Guerrero and Mexico City, then returned to his hometown to build a school and work as a rural teacher. Later, he continued his studies at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), earned a master's degree there in 1944, and completed a second master's degree at the University of Kansas in 1947.

He went on to build a long academic career at UNAM as a researcher and professor, and finished his doctoral work in 1966 with a dissertation on the bats of Mexico. That work grew into Los murciélagos de México, a book described as a standard reference for researchers studying Mexican bats.

Across his career, he published five books and more than 100 articles, mainly on bats and rodents, and also on marine mammals. He was also active in scientific societies, including roles with the Mexican Association of Mammalogy and the Mexican Society for Marine Mammal Research. He died on November 21, 2006.