My story
I am from Soto de Cerrato, a very small village of Palencia, in the interior of Spain, where I developed my love for nature. Having clear ─since a little child─ that animal behaviour was what I was most passioned about, I moved from my little village to study biology at the University of Salamanca. Soon, Salamanca became my second home, where I stayed many years living, loving, studying and working untiringly, training as a scientist. Meanwhile, I visited the most remote islands and climbed the highest mountains of the Iberian Peninsula to study the thermoregulation of the small threatened lizards living there.
​
​
After completing my PhD, I moved to Brazil to continue unravelling how temperature modulates the behaviour of animals. I lived four years in Campo Grande, Mato Grosso do Sul (Brazil), a beautiful city where macaws, caimans and capybaras share their space with humans, teaching Animal Behaviour, researching, training students and organizing many outreach and scientific events at the UFMS. I also had the great privilege of doing fieldwork in the Pantanal ─the largest continuous wetland of the World─ a natural paradise where wildlife still bustles almost undisturbed.
​
All along the way, I became aware of how far we still are of gender equality and how important it is to advance constructing a more sustainable future. Although I believe being optimistic is the best attitude, the animals I love so much are more threatened each day, and acting now is the only way to be able to preserve them in the middle, or even short term. And it is not only because of them: it is undoubted that we, humans, totally depend on a healthy nature to live. In addition, it is proven that gender equality promotes better scientific outcomes and improves sustainability. Thus, achieving gender equality in science and decision-making becomes essential if we want to overcome current environmental crises. However, women are still less than 15-20% in decision-making positions worldwide. That's why I began dedicating tons of energy to advance gender equality in science and that's why I was so happy when in 2019 I was selected for Homeward Bound, a revolutionary international leadership program for women in science. Two years of intensive leadership training with an incredible global network of women in STEM prepared me to be an effective leader in my scientific career and to influence decisions aimed at valorising science, protecting nature and support other women researchers.
​
In 2021 I won a competitive talent attraction postdoctoral program from the Andalusian government that allowed me to return to Spain to work in the University of Granada. In 2023 I got a teaching position at the University of León, thanks to an excellence program.
​
Here I am consolidating my research line on the effect of the thermal landscape on the behavioral and movement ecology of wild vertebrates and its implications to mitigate climate change impacts, in collaboration with interdisciplinary researchers from different universities of Spain, Brazil, USA and UK.
​
CV (updated to January 2023)