During my scientific background, I obtained my bachelor ́s degree in Geology in 2000 at the University of Granada (Spain). From 2003 to 2010, I worked in several private geotechnical consulting companies (G2G, Conanma, and Vorsevi), preparing geotechnical reports for both building and civil engineering. The work experience in the private sector was a significant starting opportunity to work as a geologist and it gave me the opportunity to acquire professional maturity and responsibility before returning to the academy. In 2010, I enrolled in the official Master of Geology at the University of Granada and from January 2014 to July 2018, I was a PhD candidate in the department of Stratigraphy and Palaeontology at the University of Granada.
I obtained my PhD, with international doctorate accreditation, in July of 2018. During my PhD student period, I focused on characterizing critical paleoenvironmental conditions, both primary productivity and seafloor oxygen conditions, across the Cretaceous Paleogene mass extinction event (KPgB). In addition, I also demonstrated an outstanding level of mobility and the ability to establish international collaborations through several short stays at the University of Utrecht (The Netherlands) and at the University of Perugia (Italy).
I gained my first postdoc position (6 months duration, from Nov 2018 to May 2019) at the University of Granada as a prize for the quality and number of papers published during the pre-doctorate period. On 1st January 2020, I started to work in the Organic Geochemistry Unit (OGU) based within the Schools of Earth Science and Chemistry at the University of Bristol (UK). Firstly, supported by a highly competitive Newton International Fellowship (NIF\R1\191430) funded by the Royal Society, and later for the prestigious Marie Curie individual fellowship (MSCA- IF-2020-101022128-EPROAMA) funded by the European Commission. This last, gave me more funding and furthermore the opportunity to remain at OGU, for two years more, and to learn a deep understanding on biomarkers application.
Briefly, I extracted organic matter (OM) from ground samples, from several KPgB outcrops worldwide (New Zealand, USA, Spain, Unit Kingdom). The resulting total lipid extracts were separated into apolar, aromatic and polar fractions to allow their subsequent analysis. Then, key biomarker abundances and distributions were determined to ascertain changes in OM source, e.g.: algal assemblages (steranes), terrestrial biomarker (long chain n-alkanes), microbial inputs (hopanes) and GDGTs characterization [BIT index, terrestrial and sea surface Temperature (SSTTEX86)].
During my time as PhD student and PDRA (>8 years), I gained a lot of experience in both inorganic and organic geochemistry. Additionally, I can apply a variety of methods regarding the extractions and measurement of samples from different periods of time (from 540 M.a). I feel confident regarding the application and interpretations of different biomarkers, which is critical for understanding the history of life on our planet and potentially relevant to understand future biotic events.