Academic Editors
The following people constitute the Editorial Board of Academic Editors for PeerJ. These active academics are the Editors who seek peer reviewers, evaluate their responses, and make editorial decisions on each submission to the journal. Learn more about becoming an Editor.
Cristiane C Thompson
Professor of Genetics of the Institute of Biology of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ). Our research group focuses mainly on marine microbiology.
Hugo Sarmento
Professor in the Department of Hydrobiology of the Universidade Federal of São Carlos (UFSCar). Head of the Laboratory of Microbial Processes and Biodiversity, my research area is aquatic microbial ecology, with emphasis on biotic interactions, structure and function of planktonic communities in all compartments of the food web (viruses, bacteria, phytoplankton, zooplankton) mainly in tropical aquatic environments.
Valeria Spagnuolo
Valeria Spagnuolo is Associate Professor in Botany at the Department of Biology at the Federico II University of Naples. She obtained a Ph.D. in molecular systematics (plants) and the scientific qualification to Full Professor 05/A1 (Botany) during the ASN 2018.
Dr. Spagnuolo was involved in several research projects, with a focus on biomonitoring and phytoremediation, within her task/unit and in international teams (the most recent ones: EU Project FP7- ENV.2011.3.1.9-1 Mossclone (2012-15); LIFE11 ENV/IT/275 Ecoremed (2012-2017); PON 03PE_00107. Biopolis (2013-2017).
Dr. Spagnuolo's expertise includes genetic variation in natural populations of mosses along environmental gradients; biomonitoring of air quality by cryptogams and vascular plants; and phytoremediation of metal-polluted soil. In recent years, her long research experience has been centred on plant response to abiotic stresses and biomonitoring of indoor air pollution.
She is involved in editorial activities, as a reviewer for international journals (e.g. Environmental Pollution, Frontiers in Plant Science), as a guest editor in Atmosphere and Plant Journals, and as an editor of the latest Italian edition of Raven (Zanichelli).
Dr. Spagnuolo has published over 60 publications (Scopus ID 6602352988), with an h-index 20 and over 1200 citations. She also detects a patent as the inventor of a tool for biomonitoring of air quality (EP 3 076 171 A1).
Peter Wilf
After my eclectic and non-geological 20s, I discovered geology and then paleobotany and have never looked back. Most of my thesis research (Penn Geology) was done in residence at the Smithsonian, on megafloral and paleoclimatic change across the Paleocene-Eocene boundary in southern Wyoming. During this time and in an ensuing Smithsonian postdoc, I began developing two major subsequent themes of my research: the fossil history of plant-insect associations and the remarkable riches of Patagonian fossil floras. I spent three years at Michigan, 1999-2002, as a Michigan Fellow and happily joined the Penn State Geosciences faculty in 2002, where I have been developing these and several other wonderful research projects with my students and colleagues all over the world.
James Curley
Associate Professor, Psychology Department, University of Texas at Austin (2017-). Formerly, Assistant Professor, Psychology Department, Columbia University (2012-2017), Research Associate, Columbia University (2007-2012), Post-doctoral Researcher, Sub-Department of Animal Behavior, University of Cambridge (2003-2007), PhD, Sub-Department of Animal Behavior, University of Cambridge (1999-2003).
My current research interests are the neurobiological basis of social behavior in groups, as well as the long-term plastic changes in the brain and peripheral physiology that occur as a consequence of social experience. I am also interested in statistical methods for the study of social hierarchies and networks.
Jesús Marugán-Lobón
Dr. Marugán-Lobón is a Paleobiologist from the Universidad autónoma of Madrid, Spain. He is an specialist in Geometric Morphometrics, and his research is focused in understanding macroevolutionary trends in vertebrates, and in particular, the dinosaur-bird transition. He belongs to the research staff of the Las Hoyas fossil site, is Research Associate of the Dinosaur Institute (NHM), and colaborates with the Theoretical Biology Lab, Cavanilles Institute of Biological Diversity and Evolution.
J. Thomas Sanderson
Professor of Toxicology at the INRS-Institut Armand-Frappier, Université du Québec, Laval, Canada. Adjunct professor at the Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics, Faculty of Medicine, McGill University, Montréal, Canada. Member and former councillor (2008-2011) of the Society of Toxicology of Canada. Member of the Society of Toxicology since 2000. Recipient of a 2006 Leader's Opportunities Fund Infrastructure Award from the Canadian Foundation for Innovation. Current research funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and Natural Sciences and Engineering Council of Canada.
Ursula Stochaj
Associate Professor in the Department of Physiology at McGill University, Montreal.
Research interests: protein and RNA transport, nuclear function and organization, stress, signaling, chaperones, nanobiology, stem cell biology, microscopy, quantitative image analysis, high-throughput screening.
Nathan Caruana
I am I am a cognitive neuroscientist within the Department of Cognitive Science at Macquarie University. I use virtual reality, eye tracking, motion capture and neurophysiology measures to study the cognitive and neural mechanisms of social perception, joint attention, and non-verbal social coordination - in typical development, autism and schizophrenia. In this work, I am specifically focused on developing interactive methods which balance ecological validity, experimental control and objectivity in our measurement of social attention, behaviour and corresponding neural processes.
Relating to this work, I also study how humans perceive and interact with social artificial agents (e.g., virtual avatars and physical robots). I am specifically interested in examining how our beliefs and expectations shape our experiences with artificial agents to inform how they can be optimally designed and positioned to fulfil their intended purpose.
Leonardo Alexandre Peyré-Tartaruga
I grew up in the south Brazil, alternating times between Montevideo (Uruguay) and Porto Alegre (Brazil). Crossing the Pampas several times made me deeply interested in nature and biology. After, I joined my passion for sports and movement to the area of biology. Last year, after 17 years as Assistent and Associate Professor in the UFRGS (Brazil), I moved to Pavia, and currently I am Professor UniPV, Italy. I am interested in minima, maxima and others optima in terrestrial locomotion & Sports Sciences. The pathological gait is a very interesting area to apply basic concepts of human locomotion. I am very proud to study and principally, to change life in the Parkinson projects. Also, and most important, the study on mechanical determinants of locomotion performance and economy is my passion.
Carmen Arena
Carmen Arena is Associate Professor in Ecology at the Department of Biology of the University of Naples Federico II. She conducts researches in the ecological disciplines, dealing with studies concerning photosynthesis and morpho-functional adaptation strategies of higher plants and macroalgae in response to mono and multiple stresses in natural and controlled environments, with applications in ecological, biotechnological and agronomic field.
The research activity holds three main issues:
1) Regulation of the photosynthetic process in higher plants and macroalgae in response to ecological factors in the context of environmental change.
2) Study of plant growth in an extra-terrestrial environment.
3) Plant-soil interactions in natural and anthropized ecosystems.
These researches include a) the eco-physiological response of crop species to light quality; (b) the morpho-functional strategies of plant in phytoremediation studies (c)) the relationship between soil pollution, edaphic communities and photosynthesis in higher plants used in biomonitoring studies.
C. Arena is author of 130 publications peer-reviewed ISI-WoS/Scopus, and participated to more than 150 National and International congresses and workshops, most of them as speaker and invited speaker.
Juan Alpuche
Juan José Alpuche Osorno is a Biochemistry Professor with experience in bachelor's and postgraduate courses. He is also a life science researcher with management skills and experience at the executive level in Mexican health services and medical faculties. He is looking for a challenging permanent position in a world-class University.
Laboral Experience:
- Vice director 2022- To date. Faculty of Medicine, Universidad Autonoma Benito Juárez de Oaxaca. Planning, directing, and managing the activities of management and technical personnel and ensuring consistency of goals, policies, and procedures.
- Coordinator of a Doctorate Program in Health. 2019-2022. Faculty of Dentistry, Universidad Autonoma Benito Juárez de Oaxaca. Planning, directing, and managing the activities of management of the program to ensure the achievement of academic and research goals.
- Head of the Laboratory of Biochemistry. 2019-To date. Faculty of Medicine, Universidad Autonoma Benito Juárez de Oaxaca. Planning, directing, and managing the activities of the laboratory. With a team of 20 people, they attended +750 students on biochemistry academic and research practices at the bachelor level.
- Professor 2014-2018. National Council of Science and Technology, Mexico. Founding of the Laboratory of Multidisciplinary Studies at the Faculty of Medicine- Universidad Autonoma Benito Juárez de Oaxaca. Developing basic and applied research on biochemistry, leading a research team, and getting external funds for three research projects.
- Deputy Director Laboratory of Epidemiological Reference of Yucatan State, Mexico. 2011-2014. Health Secretary and Health Services of the State of Yucatan, Mexico. Planning, directing, and managing the activities of management and technical personnel and ensuring consistency of the laboratory's goals, policies, and procedures with a team of more than 50 people. Positioning the state laboratory in the 13/27th place, starting from 27th in two years in the National Bulletin of Excellence.
Education:
- Post-doctorate in Protein Biochemistry 2007 – 2008. Chemical Faculty- Universidad Nacional Autonoma del Estado de Morelos, Mexico.
- Post-doctorate in Molecular Biology 2008 – 2009. Sciences Faculty- Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico.
- Post-doctorate in Comparative Immunology 2009 – 2011. Faculty of Medicine- Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Mexico.
- Doctor of Science 2002 – 2007. Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico.
- Fisheries Engineer (Food Specialist) 1997 – 2002. Instituto Tecnologico del Mar, Mexico.
Key Scientific Achievements:
- 34 Scientific Research Articles
- 873 total citations
- H index of 11
- I10 Index of 12
- +50 scientific conferences
- 1st place in Oaxaca State Health Research Award.