I am Gonzalo Nieto Feliner. I am a Research Professor at the CSIC and I was director of the Royal Botanical Garden (CSIC) between 2006 and 2014. My research tries to understand the current diversity of plants, interpreting it as the result of different processes that have interacted over evolutionary time and will continue. doing so in the future. My main focus is to explore how natural hybridization has contributed to generating new diversity throughout evolution - that is, new varieties or even species - as well as to the adaptation of existing ones to new environments. For example, a species at the margins of its range and ecological niche can extend both by acquiring genes from a congener through hybridization; and this process appears to be more important than previously believed. I have always understood Science without barriers. For this reason, I embarked on the adventure of organizing the International Botany Congress, a global event that is held every six years and of which its 20th edition, held in Madrid between July 21 and 27, 2024, is the first. in southern Europe and throughout the Mediterranean basin. My hobbies are traveling, running, reading, hiking, listening to music, growing plants and drawing.