University of Oxford
11a Mansfield Rd
OX1 3SZ
UK
DPhil Student
John Joshua Azucena
Background
I grew up surrounded by mountains, forests, rivers, and rice fields, and these natural classrooms cradled my interest in understanding the diversity, uniqueness, complex processes, and interconnectedness of life. I carried this fascination into formal classrooms, where I spent eight years sharing the wonders of Biology with high school students. These life experiences have shaped the person I am today — an ecologist and conservationist by training, and a teacher at heart.
Research Interests
On a hot May evening, my father returned from a fishing trip to a nearby river empty-handed, leaving us without dinner that night.
“There are no fishes this afternoon. I don’t know why.”
That was the first time I witnessed the decline of species in our community and its direct impacts on our daily survival—a childhood memory that later shaped my scientific pursuits and aspirations to understand extinctions and declines in island ecosystems.
The current biodiversity crisis is characterized by declines and extinctions across the tree of life. While anthropogenic drivers are implicated in this crisis, much remains to be learned about these extirpations in the context of tropical island ecosystems. Motivated by my interest in understanding the mechanistic drivers of biodiversity loss in tropical island ecosystems, I pursued a master’s degree in ecological management and conservation biology. For my dissertation, I conducted the first comprehensive and comparative spatial analysis exploring the association between extinction risks among Philippine tetrapod vertebrates and the increasing frequency of high-intensity tropical cyclones in the Anthropocene.
Current Research
My current research interests explore the interplay between ecology, evolution, and conservation science to address questions about the impacts of anthropogenic threats on the persistence of biodiversity in tropical island ecosystems and the conservation measures that can be applied to mitigate these impacts. For my DPhil, I am investigating the effects of land use change and related anthropogenic disturbances on the diversity, composition, and functioning of various ecological communities in insular tropical landscapes, specifically in the Philippines. Ultimately, through this research, I aim to inform policy implementation that will protect biodiversity and optimize ecological functioning in human-modified tropical island ecosystems.
Brief CV
2025 – present: DPhil Interdisciplinary Life and Environmental Science, University of Oxford
2022 – 2023: MSc Ecological Management and Conservation Biology, Queen’s University Belfast under the Chevening Scholarship
2017 – 2025: Special Science Teacher (Biology, Agriculture, Research), Philippine Science High School
2013 – 2017: BS Mathematics and Science Teaching, University of the Philippines Los Baños
Links
https://communityecology.zoo.ox.ac.uk