Education: University of Paris VI, France, 1989, Organisms and Population Biology. University of Montpellier II, France, Ph.D. in Ecology and Evolution, 1996. CSIC Barcelona, Spain, Postdoctoral, 1998. Catholic University of Chile, Santiago, Chile, Postdoctoral 1999-2002.

Present academic positions: Assistant Professor of Biology, Departamento de Ciencias Ecológicas, Universidad de Chile. Associate Investigator, Institute of Ecology and Biodiversity (IEB).

Research: To progress in our understanding of the speciation patterns and processes at different scales, we are working with selected biological models that illustrate past and present speciation events. At large geographic and time scales, we are working to clarify the origin and evolution of the Antarctic marine benthic fauna, establishing the phylogenetic relationships between congeneric invertebrate species from Antarctica and South America. At a regional scale, taking advantage of Chilean geography, we are comparing patterns of genetic differentiation for different vertebrate species throughout their distributiions. Additionally, we are providing important information for the definition of management units of artiodactyls of South America and the development of conservation plans of guanaco and vicuña. At small geographic and time scales, we are investigating the endemic fish genus Orestias in the salt-lakes of the Chilean Altiplano to determine if the present dryness of the Andean Altiplano promotes small-scale differentiation that could account for past species flocks in this genus. At the same time, we are looking at the way historical processes such as the El Niño/Southern Oscillations, Pacific Decadal Oscillations or, at larger time scales, the Pleistocene glaciations, mould the spatial and temporal patterns of intraspecific genetic variation. In the marine realm, we are looking for recent and past population size variation in pelagic fish living in the highly productive upwelling systems of south- and north-east Pacific in relation with the exploitation regime imposed by commercial fisheries.

Publications