Julio is a Venezuela-born Costa Rican. He got his bachelors and masters degrees in biology from Universidad de Costa Rica, San Jose, Costa Rica. He worked on the population biology of citrus pests on Central Valley plantations during his graduate program. After graduation, he worked as a data analyst with the Fundacion Iguana Verde in Panama. His interest in applied biology took him to the University of Florida Citrus Research and Education Center for his Ph.D. program in entomology. There he studied the demography, biological control, and mortality factors of a particular scale insect on citrus. Once his Ph.D. was completed, he spent a short period of time between Florida and Puerto Rico evaluating the populations and natural enemies of the citrus brown aphid, a vector of the citrus tristeza virus.

Since his return to Costa Rica, Julio has worked as an agrochemical testing consultant and research administrator. Every year between 1996 and 2000 he has participated as support faculty for the Agroecology of the Organization for Tropical Studies (OTS) course. Julio currently works as the Agroecology Lecturer at the Center for Sustainable Development Studies, the School for Field Studies, in Atenas, Costa Rica. He also tends his small coffee farm without using agrochemicals. Julio has two sons, Julio Gabriel (17-years old) and Sebastian Manuel (1-year old). His wife’s name is Lourdes.