I am a Full Professor of the Department of Ecology at the Autonomous University of Madrid. I work in the Microbial Ecology of aquatic systems, many of them temporary where, depending on the characteristics of the system, microbial mats can develop. These are complex communities of microorganisms that developed on our planet more than 2,500 Ma ago. In Spain they are normally found in saline environments such as numerous lagoons in Castilla-La Mancha or Los Monegros (Aragon). The innumerable alterations that these lagoons are receiving from human activity and climate change are drastically altering them and endangering their biota, especially the mats. For this reason, I am determined, together with my colleagues, to make their precarious state public and to defend them. My hobbies are, among others, taking walks in the countryside, picking mushrooms in autumn and making ceramics.