Plenary Speakers
Romulus Whitaker
" Guardians on the ground: integrating community, conservation and snake bite mitigation"
Whitaker will describe how partnering with indigenous communities and developing venom harvesting programmes both conserves snakes and reduces human snake conflict. This talk would frame snakebite prevention as an indicator of social and environmental health and emphasise the importance of local guardianship.
Indraneil Das
" Rare serpents as sentinels of changing rainforests: lessons from tropical Asia"
Indraneil Das is a conservation biologist and herpetologist at Universiti Malaysia Sarawak. Das will discuss how the rediscovery of elusive reptiles and amphibians reveals subtle changes in rainforest ecosystems, showing how these "sentinel species" signal habitat disturbance and climate‑driven change. He can draw on his experience in systematic surveys and conservation to illustrate how protecting rare snakes benefits broader ecosystem health.
Julie Ray
" Hinged on Local Understanding and Acceptance: Snake Conservation Throughout the New World"
Julie Ray, Ph.D., has studied herpetology, focusing on snakes, throughout the New World for over three decades. She has worked extensively with local people at each location to educate and promote conservation of species often feared and loathed. Julie’s research aided in the delisting of the Lake Erie Watersnake and her documentation of the collapse of the snake community linked to the loss of amphibians to Chytridiomycosis has served as a model in understanding upper tropic level effects in the Neotropics. She has done all of this while being legally blind/visually impaired, further emphasizing her dedication to conservation through adversity.
Taksa Vasaruchapong
" House of the Serpent: Century of Snake Husbandry and the Sustainability of Venom Production"
Taksa Vasaruchapong is a veterinarian and head of Snake Farm, Queen Saovabha Memorial Institute (QSMI), the Thai Red Cross Society. He has started his career since graduated Doctor of Veterinary Medicine with honors in 2005 and Ph.D. in Animal Physiology in 2025. He decided to work with snakes, considering that they are among the most pitiful and misunderstood animals. Snakes deserve the same care and respect as any other living creature, yet they are often judged and killed simply for being born snakes, based on the belief that they are dangerous. His tasks involve snake diseases and management programs to ensure the snakes receive proper care in captivity. He has conducted research involving snake biology, physiology, medicine, and snake venom. Currently, he is working on the sustainability and quality of snake venom production in QSMI and also plays a part in education programs on snake identification, safe handling and snakebite first aid for the public. Beyond his role at QSMI, Taksa serves in various capacities across multiple institutions. He is a reference person for snake identification at the Ramathibodi Poison Center, a reptile veterinarian at both government and private hospitals, a consultant for snake husbandry and veterinary care at the Siam Serpentarium, and a guest lecturer at several leading medical and veterinary schools in Thailand.
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Aaron Bauer
" Mapping hidden diversity: taxonomy as a tool for monitoring ecosystem change"
Aaron Bauer, professor at Villanova University, is an internationally renowned herpetologist. Bauer will explain how documenting and describing snake diversity creates the baseline needed to detect population declines, range shifts and emerging threats. By illustrating examples from his taxonomic work, he can show how new species discoveries and distributional data serve as early warnings of environmental change.
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Bartosz Borczyk
" Allometric patterns and sexual dimorphism in snake skulls"
Bartosz Borczyk is an assistant professor at the University of Wroclaw. His research is focused on allometry and sexual dimorphism in snakes and evolutionary morphology of reptiles and other vertebrates. He combines developmental, anatomical, and ecological approaches to understand how form evolves in response to functional and evolutionary pressures. Most of his research is collection-based but occasionally he is also involved in field studies. Bartosz will give a talk on the allometric patterns and sexual dimorphism in snake skulls
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Anjana Silva
" Snakebite as a public health indicator: translating clinical toxinology into conservation"
Anjana Silva is a chair professor of parasitology at Rajarata University of Sri Lanka and an adjunct senior research fellow at Monash University. Silva can discuss how patterns of snakebite incidence and severity reflect ecological change, human behaviour, and healthcare access. By presenting data on envenoming physiology and antivenom effectiveness, he can argue that reducing snakebite mortality requires both conservation of snake populations and investment in rural healthcare.
Jia Tang Li
" Genomic sentinels: what snake genomes reveal about evolution and environmental change"
Jia Tang Li is a herpetologist at the Chengdu Institute of Biology (Chinese Academy of Sciences). Li will explore how comparative genomics uncovers the genetic mechanisms that allowed snakes to adapt to past environmental shifts and how genome sequences can be used to predict future responses to climate change. He can explain the implications of limb loss genes and sensory adaptations for understanding snakes as both guardians of ancient ecosystems and indicators of ongoing change.