I was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina in the early seventies. Early after I moved to Mexico city, where I spent most of my life. I kept visiting my family in BsAs every two years for some ten to twelve years, until I got a Mexican resident visa, and leaving the country to renew it was not necessary anymore... well, I still visit them every once in a while.

I never liked school as a kid. I always preferred to be exploring something in the yard or creating art than to be doing homework at home. That was the main reason that pushed me toward musical instruments. I started playing organ after my father's lessons and then jumped to the guitar, which I still play (see some of my songs here). Later on, music took me to poetry (here is a small poem in Spanish), which is something I also keep doing... sometimes.

I started becoming a naturalist at a very young age. I loved to watch all types of bugs for hours, to build hydraulic systems with dirt and a hose, collect all sort of rocks and pieces of junk, store arthropods in bottles, etc. I knew jumping-spiders very well, the seasons in which they were more abundant, the type of food they liked the most, etc. I practiced canoing as an excuse to collect frogs, snakes, and fish... but my passion was the outdoors.

I went from scouts to pioneering groups in which camping and survival skills were a must. I learned all the knots and fire-starting techniques, did two solitary journeys on foot, traveled all around Mexico, and knew lots of contrasting people in all those places. Then, as my sister being a photographer, I decided to give it a try and started carrying the camera everywhere (this was way before digital!). Photography, thus, became part of my life too (see some of my photos).

After highschool I took a 4-year break. I steered from place to place and job to job, until a group of mountain bikers offered me a real job as a guide and vehicle-support backup. After a couple of years, the economic situation forced me to take a more serious decision about my future, and after a long walk my choice was made: to study biology was my priority.

I studied at the Faculty of Sciences, UNAM. What a wonderful experience in all the possible aspects. I became part of the crew of the Paleobotany lab in my first semester, and started working with stromatolites and microfossils. The connection with geology was immediate, and without knowing it, I was already hooked with the paleoworld. The early Earth, the evolution of the geo and the biosphere and all the things related to the past befell my zeal.

After my Bachelor's, I started working for the government (www.conabio.gob.mx) on issues related to biodiversity, and after 3 years there, I decided to pursue a Master's degree. This time, I went more into sedimentology and facies analysis, and right after that, a PhD was mandatory. In the meantime, I got married and our first son was on his way.

I got accepted at ASU and started my PhD in my current project. I am very happy to be here for many reasons: 1) my advisor is a very nice guy. He is catalan, earned a degree in microbiology at the University of Oregon, under the supervision of Richard Castenholz. Then he moved to the Max Planck Institute to work with microbial mats and related stuff for 7 years, and ended up here at ASU doing microbial ecology and geomicrobiology. 2) The project I am doing is what I like the most: a multidisciplinary approach to find fossil evidence of life on land in the Precambrian (see my research). 3) Although the wheather here is not nice during the summer, the rest of the year is more than perfect!