President: Lei Fumin (China)

Key Laboratory of Zoological Systematics and Evolution
Chinese Academy of Sciences
Beijing, China
e-mail: leifm@ioz.ac.cn
www: sourcedb.ioz.cas.cn/..

Lei Fumin greatly enjoys working on birds and values his collaboration with the IOU. His research interests include taxonomy, phylogeny, biodiversity and distribution, phylogeography, adaptive evolution through comparative genomics, and the molecular epidemiology of avian influenza, with all studies focused on birds.

Since 2018, following the 27th IOCongress in Vancouver, he has served as Chair of the IOU Working Group on Asian Ornithology. The group aims to promote scientific research and cooperation among Asian partners and collaborate with members in other regions; establish research needs and conservation strategies for Asia; identify barriers to effective research and conservation of threatened birds in the region and explore potential solutions; and attract more Asian ornithologists to join the IOU, especially from developing and less developed countries.

He has also served as editor for Current Zoology, Editor for Asia in Journal of Ornithology, Executive Editor-in-Chief of Avian Research, Associate Editor in Journal of Biogeography, and Associate Editor-in-Chief of Zoological Systematics, among others. He was elected a member of the International Ornithological Committee (IOU Fellow since 2010) in 1998 and has attended all IOCongresses since the Durban IOCongress in 1998. He was a member of the Scientific Program Committee (SPC) for the 25th IOCongress in 2010 in Campos do Jordão and the 27th IOCongress in 2018 in Vancouver.

Lei Fumin is happy to collaborate with anyone interested in these research areas for the study and conservation of birds, which he considers lovely and beautiful animals. 

Vice President: Juan Carlos Reboreda
Department of Ecology, Genetics & Evolution
Faculty of Exact & Natural Sciences
University of Buenos Aires, Argentina

E-mail: reboreda@ege.fcen.uba.ar

Juan Carlos is an Emeritus Professor at the University of Buenos Aires and a Researcher at the National Research Council of Argentina. Since 2022, he has served as Vice President of the International Ornithological Union. His main research interests are the behavioural ecology and conservation of southern South American birds.

He studied biology and completed his PhD in biological sciences at the Faculty of Exact and Natural Sciences, University of Buenos Aires, where he has been a professor for the past 30 years. He is a Fellow of the International Ornithological Union and the American Ornithological Society. He has served as Associate Editor of The Auk, Bird Conservation International, and Emu-Austral Ornithology.

He has also held administrative roles including Head of Department, Secretary of Science, Vice-Dean, and Dean of the Faculty of Exact and Natural Sciences at the University of Buenos Aires. Additionally, he served as President of Aves Argentinas (BirdLife Argentina) and as a Council Member of BirdLife International. He is an Honorary Member of the Argentinian Society of Ecology and has received the Alexander F. Skutch Medal from the Association of Field Ornithologists and the William Brewster Memorial Award from the American Ornithological Society.

Secretary: Sandi Willows-Munro

Professor of Genetics 

University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
E-mail: Willows-munro@ukzn.ac.za

 Prof Sandi Willows-Munro was born in Johannesburg, South Africa. She received her PhD from Stellenbosch University South Africa under the supervision of Conrad Matthee.  She completed a postdoc at the University of Texas in Austin United States in the labs of David Hillis and David Cannatella. She is currently head of the Conservation Genetic Lab at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa and holds an Associate Professor position in the Department of Genetics. African birds are her passion, and she has been lucky enough to work on the genetics of some of African’s most enigmatic birds including Poicephalus parrots and vultures.  Her field of interest covers evolutionary and molecular biology as a whole. Specifically, she is interested in the use of phylogenetic, phylogeographic and population genetic techniques to examine the genetic factors underpinning evolutionary processes. She currently serves as secretary of the International Ornithological Union (IOU). She is also an elected member of the Zoological Society of Southern Africa and the Southern African Society for Systematic Biology. She serves on the editorial board of the International Journal of Avian Science (IBIS), African Zoology and Global Ecology and Conservation. 

Editor- The IOU Flutter:  Vidya Padmakumar

EcoDiversity Research Centre, Hazelton, BC
e-mail: flutter@internationalornithology.org
www: sourcedb.ioz.cas.cn/..

Dr. Vidya Padmakumar is an ornithologist based in Hazelton, British Columbia, Canada. She received her PhD in Biology in 2022 and has worked on avian ecology, biodiversity, and environmental toxicology. Her research focuses on seabirds, wetland and mangrove-associated avifauna, and the effects of environmental stressors such as contaminants and oxidative stress on bird physiology and conservation.

She currently serves as the Editor of The IOU Flutter, the official magazine of the International Ornithological Union, and is actively involved in the communication of ornithological research and community news to the international ornithological community. She is also the Director of the Canadian Herpetological Society and an elected member of the Royal Society of Biology, London. She serves on the editorial board of the American Journal of Life Sciences and the Acta Entomology and Zoology.

Treasurer: Eli Bridge (USA)
Oklahoma Biological Survey, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
University of Oklahoma
660 Parrington Oval
Norman, OK 73019

e-mail: ebridge@ou.edu
www:  thebridgelab.oucreate.com/

Birds do not recognize political boundaries. Although the same is not true for humans, we need an organization that can reach across the continents to foster international cooperation and collaboration. It is a very exciting time to be part of the International Ornithologists’ Union as we strive to foster a worldwide community of bird researchers and enthusiasts. I have a strong interest in ornithology as an international endeavor, partly because my current research focuses on animal tracking and bird migration, but also because conserving wildlife on this changing planet will require international coordination. Here is where the IOU can make a real difference, by proving a forum for ornithologists worldwide and a stage for presenting the results of our research efforts. I have attended several International Ornithological Congresses starting with the one in Hamburg in 2006, but I am a newcomer to the council of the IOU. I became treasurer in 2018 just after the IOC in Vancouver, and I am still climbing the learning curve in negotiating the finances of an international non-profit organization. It is a true honor to be part of this organization right now as we modernize and mobilize to reach our full potential as a global scientific society.

Past president: Dominique G. Homberger (USA)
Dept. of Biological Sciences, Louisiana State University
Baton Rouge, LA 70803
e-mail: zodhomb@lsu.edu
www: www.lsu.edu/science/homberger

Professor, International Ornithologists’ Union (IOU) 2018-2022 and International Ornithological Congress 2022 (IOCongress^® 2022)

Dominique Homberger is a distinguished Alumni Professor in Biological Sciences at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge where she teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in vertebrate anatomy, 3D imaging and animation, and environmental issues https://www.lsu.edu/science/biosci/faculty-and-staff/faculty-pages/homberger.php. Her research program investigates the functional morphology and biomechanics of vertebrates from lampreys to sharks, and from alligators, birds, and mammals to human beings by using a variety of methods, including 3D modeling and animation. In pursuit of her special interest in the evolution of parrots and cockatoos and to complement her functional-morphological data on their feeding and vocal apparatus, she has traveled widely in Australia and South America and, to a lesser extent, in other southern continents to observe the ecology and feeding behavior of wild psittaciform species in their natural habitat. She has published extensively in reviewed articles and book chapters, two research monographs, and five textbooks in vertebrate anatomy. She has served on numerous editorial boards of journals. She is the immediate past president (2022-2026) of the International Ornithologists’ Union (IOU). She presided over the virtual 28th International Ornithological Congress™ in 2022. Under her presidency (2018-2022), the IOU established a new web page, increased its membership and introduced new membership benefits, increased the number of IOU Working Groups, established the series  “IOU Distinguished Webinars”, and spearheaded an innovative virtual format of the IOCongress™ to broaden participation by ornithologists globally. She served as the IOU’s permanent secretary from 1998 until 2018. She is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the American Association for Anatomy (AAA), the American Ornithological Society (AOS), the International Ornithologists’ Union (IOU), and the Association for Women in Science (AWIS). She is also an Honorary Member of the Linnaean Society of New York.

As Immediate Past President and member of the IOU Executive Committee, my foremost task is to assist and support the current IOU Council members with their new tasks to ensure the continued success of the IOU. In addition, as per the IOU Bylaws https://www.internationalornithology.org/PDF/Bylaws_8-20-18.pdf , I serve as chair of the IOU Fellows Committee, the Nominating Committee, and the Awards Committee.

Member-at-Large: Frank E. Rheindt
National University of Singapore
Department of Biological Sciences
National University of Singapore
14 Science Drive 4
Singapore 117543
www: www.avianevonus.com

Based at the National University of Singapore, Frank has – for years – been pursuing research into the bird diversification process, with a special interest in secondary gene flow between species that can lead to a transfer of important alleles and traits from one species to the other. Another strong focus of his lab group is the application of population-genomic and phylogenomic approaches in conservation. He is an avid field biologist who’s been involved in the discovery and scientific description of numerous new bird species, especially in Southeast Asia. Within the IOU, Frank is the chair of the Working Group on Avian Nomenclature (WGAN) and the deputy chair of the Working Group on Avian Checklists (WGAC), acting in both capacities to strive for a harmonization of global taxonomic treatments and scientific name usage in birds. As chair of the Taxonomic Group within the WGAC, Frank is leading efforts in the preparation of a new and universal global taxonomic treatment of birds that is intended to unite existing global checklists from other stakeholders. These efforts are underway and scheduled to go public within the next two years. Frank is also strongly involved in the Working Group on Asian Ornithology (WGAO), serving as a vice-chair, where his aim is to help establish a solid international network of Asian ornithologists to strengthen our discipline in this most populous continent.  

Member-at-Large: Wolfgang Fiedler
Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior
Centre for Animal Marking “Vogelwarte Radolfzell”
Radolfzell and Konstanz, Germany

fiedler@ab.mpg.de

https://www.ab.mpg.de/people/98238

I am primarily interested in the phenology of bird migrations and the consequences associated with migratory behaviour for both the bird and its environment. Since 1998 I have the pleasure to work at the Max Planck Institute of Animal behaviour in Radolfzell (Germany; formerly Max Planck Institute of Ornithology).  There I am the head of the bird ringing centre (now Centre for Animal Marking) “Vogelwarte Radolfzell”, in fact the oldest bird ringing centre in the world. As someone working in Europe in the field of bird migration it always went without saying that international cooperation is indispensable. It was a great experience for me to act as secretary and later as chairman in the board of the European Union for Bird Ringing (EURING) between 2001 and 2017 and I am still very much dedicated to this organisation where more than 30 institutions across almost all European countries work together to promote and develop scientific bird ringing. Following a similar idea in a wider field the European Ornithologists’ Union (EOU) was born in the late 1990ies and I could join the young society and support it as secretary between 2001 and 2005. 2006 I was elected as committee member of the International Ornithological Conference and I followed the recent transition of that body into the IOU with high interest. I think an international association of ornithologists is important to give them a voice that is heard at the international level and to create a community of solidarity between ornithologists from richer and less rich countries. 

Congress Convener for the IOCongress2026 in Merida, Mexico, November 30-December 5, 2026: Dra. Patricia Escalante-Pliego

Departamento de Zoología, Instituto de Biología
Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México
Circuito Campos Deportivos s/n
Ciudad Universitaria, Coyoacán CDMX 04510 México

www:  https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Patricia-Escalante-2

Chair, Scientific Program Committee (SPC) for the IOCongress2026: Scott V. Edwards 

Professor of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology,
Curator of Ornithology in the Museum of Comparative Zoology,
The Museum of Comparative Zoology, Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA 02138

e-mail: sedwards@fas.harvard.edu

Scott V. Edwards is the Alexander Agassiz Professor of Zoology and Curator of Ornithology at the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard University. He joined Harvard in 2003 after serving for nine years on the faculty of the Department of Zoology and the Burke Museum at the University of Washington, Seattle. His research focuses on several aspects of avian biology, including evolutionary history, biogeography, disease ecology, population genetics, and comparative genomics. He has conducted phylogeographic fieldwork in Australia since 1987 and was among the early researchers to apply DNA sequencing to phylogeographic studies. His work on the avian major histocompatibility complex (MHC), a gene complex central to interactions between birds and infectious diseases, led to broader investigations of avian genome structure and the genetic basis of phenotypic innovation in birds. More recently, his research has used comparative genomics and multilocus DNA sequence data to examine macroevolutionary patterns in birds, including the origins of feathers and the evolution of flightlessness. Dr. Edwards has also played important leadership roles in the biological sciences. From 2013 to 2015 he served as Division Director of the Division of Biological Infrastructure at the U.S. National Science Foundation, overseeing programs supporting undergraduate research, postdoctoral fellowships, natural history collections, field stations, and other biological infrastructure. He has served as President of the Society for the Study of Evolution, the Society of Systematic Biologists, and the American Genetic Association, and has contributed to several scientific advisory boards, including those of the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History and the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. He currently serves as Chair of the Scientific Program Committee (SPC) for the International Ornithological Congress 2026, which will be held in Mérida, Mexico. In this role, he works with an international team of scientists to develop a broad and inclusive scientific program reflecting the diversity of contemporary ornithological research. Dr. Edwards is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences.

Council of the International Ornithologists’ Union, 2014 – 2018

President: Professor Dr. Lucia Liu Severinghaus, Biodiversity Research Center, Academia Sinica, 128 See 11 Yen-chiu-yuan Road, Taipei, 11529, Taiwan. Phone: 886-2-27899542; Cell: 011- 886-2-2651-0702; Fax: 886-2-27858059. In San Francisco: Phone: 1-415-929-8532. Email: zolls@gate.sinica.edu.tw

Vice President: Professor Dr. Lei Fu-min, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 1 Beichen West Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing 100101, China. Phone: +86 (10) 64807159; Fax: +86 (10) 64807159. E-mail: leifm@ioz.ac.cn

Past President: Professor Dr. Franz Bairlein, Institut für Vogelforschung (Institute of Avian Research), Vogelwarte Helgoland, An der Vogelwarte 21, D-26386 Wilhelmshaven, Germany. Phone: +49 4421 96890; Fax +49 4421 968955. E-mail: franz.bairlein@ifv-vogelwarte.de

Secretary: Professor Dr. Dominique G. Homberger, Department of Biological Sciences, 202 Life Sciences Building, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA 70803-1715, USA. Phone: 1-225-578-1747; Fax: 1-225-578-2597. E-mail:zodhomb@lsu.edu

Treasurer: Professor Dr. Stephan J. Schoech, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Memphis, 3774 Walker Avenue, Memphis, TN 38152-3560, USA. Phone: 1-901-678-2327; Fax: 1-901-678-4457. E-mail: sschoech@memphis.edu

Communications and Publications Committee Chair: Professor Dr. Hans Winkler, Konrad Lorenz Institute of Ethology, Department of Integrative Biology and Evolution, University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna, Austria E-mail: hans-christoph.winkler@oeaw.ac.at

IOCongress Convener-General: Professor Dr. Robert W. Elner, Simon Frazer University; and Pacific Wildlife Research Centre, Canadian Wildlife Service, Environment Canada, RR #1, 5421 Robertson Road, Delta, British Columbia V4K 3N2 CANADA. Phone: 1-604-940-4674; Fax: 1-604-218-9138. E-mail: rwelner@sfu.ca

Scientific Program Committee Chair: Professor Dr. Kate Buchanan, School of Life and Environmental Sciences, Deakin University, Geelong Waurn Ponds Campus, Locked Bag 20000, Geelong, VIC 3220, Australia. Phone: +61-3-5227-1321: Fax: +61 3 5227 1040. E-mail: kate.buchanan@deakin.edu.au; www.deakin.edu.au/scitech/les/staff/buchanank