Category: News

There are decisions that are made with an agitated mind and a beating heart. Mine began in Cuba, in the middle of the Latin American Congress of Botany. I wasn't sure if I would reapply to the legendary OTS Plant Systematics course. I had already been rejected once, and the...

William Bond pictured with Deedra McClearn The OTS community is saddened by the passing of Professor William Bond, a global leader in savanna and fynbos ecology and key supporter of OTS in South Africa. As part of the team of South African academics facilitating OTS' arrival in South Africa, William...

We knew we were in great hands from the moment Julissa and Phum picked us up from the tiny airport in the midst of Kruger National Park. We were immediately treated to professional spotting of wildlife from the open safari truck on our drive to the OTS Skukuza station. Picture...

Long-term ecological data are among the most valuable resources in tropical forest science. They allow researchers to look beyond single field seasons and understand how forests change, recover, and persist through time. At the Organization for Tropical Studies, preserving this kind of scientific memory is one of the central goals...

The recently published OCELOTS module, “Smartphone-based LiDAR”, is now available in both English and Spanish, opening the door for a wider community of students, educators, and researchers to explore how accessible technology can support tropical forest science.  The module was born from a collaboration between the Organization for Tropical Studies (OTS) and the Instituto Tecnológico de...

The OTS Admissions team was thrilled to welcome 15 students from across the United States and Guam, Costa Rica, and South Africa for our Tropical Biology on a Changing Planet and African Ecology and Conservation Fall 2025 undergraduate semester programs, and our next cohort of students arrived in January. We...