Dr Jose Christopher Escano Mendoza is a Senior Research Fellow at the Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum, where he serves as the Senior Curator of Crustaceans & Other Marine Arthropods. Dr Mendoza is a biologist and taxonomist by training, and is an active researcher on the systematics of brachyuran crabs, particularly of Southeast Asia and the greater Indo-Pacific region. He holds or has held editorial positions in scientific journals such as the Raffles Bulletin of Zoology, Zoosystema, and Zootaxa.

Dr Mendoza also has joint appointments at NUS College, where he teaches Invertebrate Innovations (NST2008), and at the Department of Biological Sciences (Faculty of Science), where he supervises student research in biodiversity. His previous teaching appointments were with the Department of Biological Sciences and the Bachelor of Environmental Studies Programme, where he taught modules such as Field Studies in Biodiversity (LSM4263), Environmental Studies: An Interdisciplinary Overview (ENV1101), Global Environmental Change (ENV2101), and Wildlife Protection in Southeast Asia (ENV2201), some of which had a significant component for student fieldwork in local & overseas settings.