Contributions by role
Contributions by subject area
Fernando T Maestre
Summary
I received my BsC. and PhD. in Biology from the University of Alicante, Spain, in 1998 and 2002, respectively. After my PhD. I moved to Duke University (USA) as a Fulbright post-doctoral fellow (2003-2005). In 2005 I moved to Rey Juan Carlos University (URJC), Madrid, Spain, first as a “Ramón y Cajal” researcher and since 2009 as an Assistant Professor. My research uses a wide variety of tools (field observations and experiments, laboratory work and modeling) and biotic communities (vascular plants, biological soil crusts and soil microorganisms) and is being carried out at multiple scales to understanding how dryland ecosystems work. I am (or have been) a member of the Editorial Boards of seven international scientific journals and of one Spanish journal. As the principal investigator of the @Maestrelab at URJC I have supervised six PhD. theses, 25 undergraduate/MsC. theses and eight post-doctoral stays so far. In 2009 I was awarded with a Starting Grant by the European Research Council (BIOCOM project), and in 2013 I was awarded with the Prize for young researchers working in the life sciences awarded by the Royal Spanish Academy of Sciences. I also obtained in 2014 a Humboldt Research Award from the Alexander Von Humboldt Foundation (Germany) and the "Miguel Catalán" prize for young scientists from the Regional Government of Madrid. In February 2015 I was awarded with a Consolidator Grant by the European Research Council (BIODESERT project).