I am María-Paz Martín, Research Professor and director of the Royal Botanical Garden-CSIC. My research focuses on discovering and describing the diversity of fungi through morphological, physiological and molecular characters, analyzing the genetic variability of species and establishing phylogenetic relationships between them. Since 2014 I have been a visiting professor at the Federal University of Rio Grande (Natal, Brazil), in the graduate program in Systematics and Evolution. I am a mentor at IES Miguel Delibes and IES Manuel de Falla within the STEMadrid program to promote scientific vocations. My research group has participated, since its inception, in the Scientific Internship Program of the CSIC and the Association for the Advancement of Science, an active member of the “Education and Promotion of Science” working group. In addition, I belong to the Association of Women Researchers and Technologists (AMIT) and the Association of Women in Science sponsored by the Foundation of the Royal Academy of Sciences of Spain. In my free time, among other activities, I like to read historical novels and poetry, cook for family and friends, go to the theater, the cinema or see ballet performances and, above all, walk; without forgetting the patchwork blankets that I design and make by hand.