Phil Torres is a freelance science communicator, biologist and wildlife photographer based in New York. He was the host of the television show TechKnow on Al Jazeera America for two years. He has hosted over 70 episodes of science-themed programming and dozens of in-studio and remote science contributions on live news. Phil has travelled widely seeking out new species and managing education and conservation projects. In addition to the two years spent in the Amazon Rainforest of Peru and Ecuador, he has done research and covered science stories in Mongolia, Venezuela, Sweden, the Arctic, and the Bahamas.
Through his Youtube channel The Jungle Diaries, he uses these experiences to increase awareness of conservation issues and to engage and educate the public education in innovative and appealing ways.
Phil is a keen macrophotographer and his images have been featured in BBC, National Geographic, Animal Planet and Discovery Channel programmes and publications. His photographs from the Penang Hill BioBlitz 2017 were featured in bioGraphic.com, the online magazine of the California Academy of Sciences.
A graduate of Cornell University, New York where he studied entomology and biology, Phil is also working on a PhD at Rice University in Houston, Texas.
The Jungle Diaries