Leo Finkenbinder

Among Professor of Biology Dr. Leo Finkenbinder’s most notable accomplishments is the establishment of the Quetzal Education Research Center (QERC) in San Gerardo de Dota, Costa Rica. Finkenbinder helped to spearhead the construction of a two-story biological research station in Costa Rica’s rural valley, complete with library, classrooms, lab, and lodgings for 35 visitors. Today, students and scientists study and conduct research at QERC, which is part of the Southern Nazarene University (SNU) and is a major resource for the RQ project.

Finkenbinder also assisted with the “Rio Savegre Watershed” project in Costa Rica, a sustainability project with many partners, including the United Nations, the governments of Spain and Costa Rica, and Southern Nazarene University/QERC. In an effort to repair the cloud forest and save the disappearing Resplendent Quetzal, Finkenbinder developed a sustainable model of ecology merging sound biological principles with the necessity of producing income for indigenous people. Today, quetzals have returned, and the area is the most reliable for viewing them. The forest is recovering, providing students and scientists with a rich landscape for study where research is focused on hundreds of species, some of them new to science.

On February 13, 2003, Finkenbinder, at that time not yet retired from SNU, was presented the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Oklahoma Association for Environmental Education (OKAEE) during the Environmental Education Expo at OSU.