My research lines focus primarily on forest ecology, community ecology, biodiversity conservation, and the study of human impacts on natural ecosystems, with particular emphasis on tropical environments. I began my research career in 2002, after obtaining a doctoral fellowship linked to an European project led by Dr. José María Rey Benayas at Alcalá University. During my PhD I investigated the effects of deforestation and fragmentation on plant diversity in tropical montane forest in the Highlands of Chiapas, southern Mexico. I completed my PhD dissertation with the Cum Laude honor in May 2006, and was awarded an outstanding merit qualification (Premio Extraordinario) as well as the European PhD distinction. I continued working as a post-doc with the same research group in another European project until 2008. Then I started a new post-doc position with the research group led by Dr. Regino Zamora in the Andalusian Environmental Centre. During this period I expanded my professional goals to both basic and applied research in forest ecology, including topics such as the development of methods for early detection of forest decay and investigation of drivers of forest pest population dynamics (pine processionary moth, mistletoe), with a focus on Mediterranean forests. In 2010 I gained a position as Assistant Professor at the Biology and Geology Department at Rey Juan Carlos University. I was promoted to Assistant Professor in 2011 and got a permanent position as Associate Professor (Profesor Titular) in January 2019. I have published to date 74 papers in SJR journals, 44 out of which are in the first quartile (Q1), 7 book chapters, and a high number of papers in non-indexed journals, both national and international, as well as many dissemination papers. My H-index is 24 according to Web of Science (WoS), with an average number of citations per paper of 20,89, and an overall number of citations (without self citations) of 1.970 (according to WoS). I have conducted research stays in different institutions abroad, including Mexico (El Colegio de la Frontera Sur), Chile (Universidad Austral de Chile), United Kingdom (University of Oxford), Costa Rica (Organization for Tropical Studies), and the United States (University of Vermont), and I have collaborated with many researchers from a high number of national and international institutions. I have participated in three European projects, four international projects and eight national projects in competitive programmes. I have led a project funded by Fundación BBVA, a European project (ERANET-LAC programme), two Spanish projects funded by the Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness, and an international working group focusing on “Tree diversity, composition, and carbon storage in Andean tropical montane forests”, funded by the German Center for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDIV). I am a lecturer of the MSc Programme on Biodiversity and Conservation in Tropical Areas (http://www.masterenbiodiversidad.org/), organised by the Menéndez Pelayo International University (UIMP) and the National Scientific Research Centre (CSIC).