I am a CSIC Research Professor at the Royal Botanical Garden of Madrid, where I have been researching for more than 35 years in taxonomic, genetics, systematics and ecology of numerous groups of plants (more than 40 genera from 30 botanical families). An international tour in laboratories in Spain, California, England and Germany laid the foundations for considerable scientific productivity: more than 300 research articles in scientific journals on biodiversity and evolution, in addition to 9 popular books, including “The Tree of Life” (2014) and the most recent titled “Evolution in 100 questions” (2022). I also teach master's classes and have directed 17 already defended doctoral theses on genetics, phylogeny, ecology and evolution.