Curriculum

She took a degree in Biology at the University of Santiago de Compostela (USC, 1986) and carried out her predoctoral training at the Galician Institute of Agrobiological Research (CSIC, Santiago de Compostela). In 1992 she tok her doctor’s degree at the USC with her doctoral thesis (“Adaptación al campo de cepas de la variedad Albariño cultivadas in vitro”) directed by Dr. Mantilla.
 
In 1993 she moved to Galicia Biologocial Mission (CSIC-Pontevedra) and established the collection of vine varieties from Galicia and Asturias. In October 1994 she joined the Etablissement National Technique pour l'Amélioration de la Viticulture (France), where she stayed for two years. In November 1996 she returned to Spain to join again the Galicia Biological Mission. She has been a scientist of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) since 1999 and scientific researcher since 2008.
 
Since she came back from abroad, she started the training of young researchers and technicians that today form part of the Viticulture Group of Galicia Biological Missions, which she is responsible for.
 
Her research lines verse on the location, description and preservation of vine varieties, the clonal selection of minority vine varieties of commercial interest and the study of intra-varietal variability; ampelographic and agronomic characterization; quantifying of natural susceptibility to Mildiu of vine varieties and clones; anatomic and histologic characterization of vine varieties and clones and the relation of these aspects with the susceptibility level to Mildiu and the behaviour of vitis vinifera L. in the field after being cultivated in vitro.
 
She has directed the following doctoral theses: “Descripción ampelográfica de cepas de Vitis vinifera L., denominadas Albariño, procedentes de distintos puntos de la geografía gallega”; “Caracterización de Caíños y Tinta Femia (Vitis vinifera L.)”; “Caracteres agronómicos y de resistencia a enfermedades de diferentes clones seleccionados de la  variedad Albariño (Vitis vinifera L.)”; “Caracterización anatómica e histológica de diferentes variedades y clones de vid (Vitis vinifera L.), y posible relación entre estos aspectos y determinadas características ampelográficas, agronómicas y de resistencia a enfermedades criptogámicas” and “Caracterización de antiguas variedades de vid adscritas a determinadas zonas de Galicia y Asturias. Comparación de la morfología de sus hojas y racimos, con los que aparecen representados en los retablos barrocos de esas mismas áreas vitícolas”, as well as research works and final-year projects.She has participated in over twenty research projects (twelve of them as responsible researcher) such as “Cuantificación de la sensibilidad a Mildiu en variedades de vid de interés para Galicia. Mecanismos de defensa de la planta asociados a esta enfermedad” (2007-2010, Xunta de Galicia) and “Caracterización de variedades de vid gallegas y asturianas conservadas en las colecciones del Encín (IMIDRA) y Misión Biológica de Galicia (CSIC). Determinación de sinonimias, homonimias e identificación de posibles errores en ambas colecciones” (2008-2010, MICINN).
 
She is responsible for 43 transference contracts and experimentation of vegetal material and author of the selection of eleven clones of Albariño variety and fourteen clones of different varieties of Asturias vines. She has also participated in the selection and patent of an ecotypical yeast (CSIC- Bodega Terras Gauda S.A.).
 
She is also the main researcher of “Estudio del potencial de las variedades Blanco Lexítimo y Agudelo (Vitis vinifera L.) en la zona de Betanzos”, a project financed by Juana de Vega Foundation.
 
He wrote over 84 scientific articles and eight books (“La vid en el occidente del principado de Asturias. Descripción ampelográfica de las variedades”,  “El Albariño: Ilustraciones sobre la variedad Albariño (Vitis vinifera L.)”, “Los clones de Albariño (Vitis vinifera L.) seleccionados en el Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas”...).
 
He forms part of the nacional group of experts in vine varieties called Grupo de Expertos en Selección de Variedades de Vid (MARM).
 
She is a representative member of the CSIC in the CERVIM (Centro Richerca Studi Valorizzioni Viticultura Montagne), member of the Spanish Society of Horticultural Sciences, assessor of the Nacional Agency for Projects Avaliation and checker of several scientific magazines, Spanish representative member at the Management Committee of the COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology), East-West Collaboration for Grapevine Diversity Exploration and Mobilization of Adaptative Traits for Breeding of Vine Genetic Resources.
 
She has participated in different programmes and popular science projects (Diverciencia, Ciencia en la Ciudad. ExperiCiencia, Researcher’s Nigth…).
 
In 2009 she was awarded the prize of the Galician Academy of Sciences to the best research work for “Estudio para la mejora de la calidad del vino Albariño”.