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 by interpreting it as the result of different processes that have interacted over evolutionary time and will continue doing it 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 may extend both by acquiring genes from a congener through hybridization; and this process seems to be more important than previously believed. Currently, I am embarking on two projects that explore these issues in two groups in which the Iberian Peninsula is important; one is exclusive to this territory ('Phalacrocarpum', Compositae) and the other almost (Arenaria section 'Plinthine'). I have always understood Science without barriers. For this reason, I have embarked on the adventure of organizing the 20th International Botanical Congress in July 2024; a world event that is held every six years and of which its edition in Madrid will be the first in southern Europe and in the entire Mediterranean basin. My hobbies are traveling, running, reading, hiking, listening to music, growing plants, drawing.