Umilaela Arifin, Ph.D, is an Indonesian herpetologist researching amphibians and reptile diversity of the Southeast Asian region. Umi grew up in Cirebon before moving to Bandung, West Java, Indonesia, and later to Germany. For her contributions, the IUCN SSC Amphibian Specialist Group honored her as #ChampionsOfTheEndangered 2022 - a campaign by Synchronicity Earth and the Ellen Fund. She is currently a Marie Curie Postdoctoral Researcher at the Leibniz Institute for the Analysis of Biodiversity Change, Hamburg, Germany, and the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, University of California, Berkeley. She is also co-editor of the book, Women in Herpetology: 50 Stories from Around the World, a collaborative project meant to increase the visibility of women in herpetology across all disciplines.

For the Winter 2023-2024 issue, Umilaela recommended Letters to a Young Scientist, Edward O. Wilson, Liveright, 2014, 256 pages.