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NEW York City, December 7, 2007-we pop out from the underground and take a short walk to a modest apartment that looks towards a quiet park around a lake. Once inside, we sit and enjoy a relaxing view while holding a mug of freshly brewed Colombian coffee. Just across the small living room, talking about life, research, and current topics is Janis Roze. The Latvian herpetologist, emeritus professor of the Universidad Central de Venezuela, the City College, and the City University of New York, has been associated with the American Museum of Natural History and was also advisor of the United Nations Center of Science and Technology, among other things. Despite the productive discussion, we enjoyed similar and successive meetings on March 10, 2008, March 17, 2014, and September 14, 2015.
This narrative of the conversations is far from just a sterile biographical chronology of the investigator. Facts, anecdotes, and emotional situations significantly enrich the evolution of this man and show us the paths of erudition he took from being a herpetologist to become a humanist. We pay tribute and recognize this man of science.
Those who work with Neotropical reptiles, particularly snakes, and mainly with species from northern South America have certainly read the works of Janis Roze. He is a reference for research on Neotropical snakes, a man with intriguing qualities more diverse than those known for other herpetologists. Thus, it is not possible to refer to him solely as a zoologist, but also as a humanist, a man who is thinking about the way humans need to think about their own survival. Following a trend of "causalities" among European naturalists that found new life in South America, we could say that this is a man who was born in a small country in Europe, where the late Federico Medem (1912-1984) was also born, both becoming the authorities on large reptiles in Colombia and Venezuela. Nowadays, Janis Roze is not only one of the most important authorities on Neotropical snake systematics, but also a thinker looking for a better future for humanity.
Janis Arnold Roze was born on October 31, 1926 in the city of Tukums, Latvia. He is the youngest of two brothers. His father, Bernard Roze, was a Latvian railway officer....