Summary of Curriculum Vitae
CURRENT POSITION: Professor of Animal Breeding and Genetics Universitat Politècnica de València
My career has been focused on the genetics of litter size components and the genetics of meat quality in both rabbit and pig. My last research has been focused on genomics and metabolomics of rabbit and on metagenomics, microbiomics and metabolomics of rabbit intestinal content, all of them in lines selected for several purposes.   I have been president of the World Rabbit Science Association and editor in chief of the indexed journal World Rabbit Science (normally in the Q2 quartile). I have been head of the Animal Science department and head of the Institute for Animal Science and Technology. I took several sabbatical years as a visiting researcher; the first in Edinburgh, at  ABRO (now Roslin Institute); the second in Jouy-en-Josas (Paris) at INRA, and the third at FAO in Rome.   I have supervised 15 doctoral theses and published 3 books as a single author and chapters in 15 co-authored books, more than 400 scientific contributions, of which more than a hundred are Q1 articles in indexed international journals.  I have  published a book on Animal Ethics (Akal, Spanish and English edition), another on Bayesian statistics (Bayesian data analysis for animal scientists, Springer) and on Animal Breeding and Genetics (Síntesis, English edition in preparation).   I have been invited four times as chairman or as main speaker at the Annual Congress of the European Federation of Animal Science and five times as chairman or as main speaker at the World Congress on Genetics Applied to Livestock Production (once as main speaker at the opening session), and at the World Rabbit Congress, Symposium "Horizons in Livestock Sciences" (Australia), and ASAS-AAPA meeting among others.   I have the National Award in Genetics (2023), and awards from the European Federation of Animal Science and the Spanish Interprofessional Association for Agricultural Development. I was Chapman Lecturer (2008) at the University of Wisconsin. I have been appointed Accademico Corrispondente of the Accademia dei Georgofili, a prestigious institution founded in Firenze in 1753, considered the oldest agricultural academy in the world, featuring prominent scientists, agronomists, zootechnicians, and economists over the centuries.   I have taught courses in English at the universities of Edinburgh (UK) and Wisconsin (USA); in Italian at the universities of Padua, Milan, and Udine (Italy); in Portuguese at the universities of Sao Paulo and Lavras (Brazil); in Spanish at the universities of Valencia (Spain), Nacional (Montevideo, Uruguay) and Lomas (Argentina); and in French at the INRA of Toulouse.   Apart from my technical CV, I am, since 2001, the President of the Parents association of children with Specific Language Impairment, an association in which I have developed several projects to help children and young people with these disorders. One of these projects was to develop Units of Language and Communication in main stream schools in which children are integrated in standard classes for easy topics like art, music or sport and have a special classroom of six people with two teachers of special education for matters more related to their disorder. We have now in the Valencia region more than 100 units of this type, for Primary and Secondary schools. Another project was a Social Club for young people with communication difficulties that has had a spectacular success. Other projects are related to supervised flats for adult life, for supervised work integration, etc.   Besides, I have written four books, one collecting several original fiction stories, one of poetry including 20 sonets, 10 ottava rima and other forms of formal poetry, a book on essays of different topics, and a Roman dairy about my life in Rome during my sabbatical at FAO. I have participated in a congress of Philosophy of Science presenting a large communication on induction, published in the Proceedings. I have participated in classical music concerts at the University, playing piano, classical guitar and harpsichord; some of them are included in my web page.   My lifelong partner and me have taken ballroom dancing classes in the last 25 years; we enjoy dancing fox, waltz, tango, milonga, pasodoble, salsa, merengue, cumbia, cha-cha-cha, mambo, samba, swing and rock; we prepared a tango for the 7th World Rabbit Congress, that you can see in my web page. I like cooking, particularly paella (I had an award at the university competition of paellas many years ago), but also other traditional recipes of Spanish cookery. I was made a knight of the Ordre de la Confrérie de Rabouillère. I am a member of the Scottish Malt Whisky Society.

 

• Birth date: 14/8/1955

• Ingeniero Agrónomo in 1979 at the Univ. Politécnica de Valencia.

• Doctor Ing. Agr. in 1982 at the Univ. Politécnica de Valencia.

• Lecturer in Animal Breeding and Genetics in 1984.

• Professor of Animal Breeding and Genetics from 1993.

• Head of the Department of Animal Science 1990-1994.

• Visiting researcher of the Animal Breeding Research Organisation (AFRC, Edinburgh, Scotland), September 1985- October 1986.

• Visiting researcher of the Station de Génétique Quantitative et Apliquée (INRA, Jouy-en- Josas, France), June 1994 - July 1995.

• Visiting scientist of the FAO (Food and Agriculture Organisation, UNO, Rome, Italy), September 1997 - February 1998.

• President of the World Rabbit Science Association 2000-2004

• Editor-in-chief of World Rabbit Science 2002-2004.

• Invited speaker at the 6th World Rabbit Congress (Toulouse, France,1996).

• Invited speaker at the European Association of Animal Production in 1992, 1997 and 2003. Chairman of the Genetics section in 1997.

• Invited speaker at the World Congress on Genetics Applied to the Livestock Production in 1982, 2002, and 2006 (Opening session). Chairman of sessions in 1982 and 2002. Member of the Scientific Committee 2006-2014.

• Invited Speaker at the SCIRO Livestock Horizons Conference (Brisbane, Australia, October 2006).

• Chapman Lecturer 2008. University of Wisconsin (Madison, USA).

• Invited speaker at the joint meeting American Association of Animal Science and Asociación Argentina de Producción Animal (Mar de Plata, Argentina, 2011).

• Invited speaker at the Congress on Controversies in Bovine Health, Industry and Economics (Berlin, 2015).

• Supervisor  of 15 PhD students (Director of 15 PhD thesis).

• Course "An introduction to Bayesian inference and MCMC in Quantitative Genetics” taught at the universities of Valencia (Spain), Sao Paulo and Lavras (Brasil), Padova, Udine and Piacenza (Italy), Nacional (Uruguay), Wisconsin (USA), Edinburgh (Scotland, UK), and at the INRA (Toulouse, France).

• Director of the Master of Animal Breeding and Reproduction Biotechnology (2007-2019).

• Head of the Institute of Animal Science and Technology (2012-2020).

 RESEARCH INTERESTS 

    1. Application of Bayesian methods to animal breeding. 

    2. Genetics of litter size components in pigs and rabbits. 

    3. Genetics of growth rate, carcass and meat quality in pigs and rabbits.

   4. Genomics, metabolomics and metagenomics of divergent lines selected for single traits: for residual variance of litter size, for uterine capacity and for intramuscular fat.

RESEARCH ACTIVITY

Recent Research Projects (since 2014)

- Project of the National Research Plan "Selection for productivity, welfare and meat quality in rabbit". 2012-2014. Research leader.

- Project of the National Research Plan "Genomic and metabolomic study of several divergent selection lines in rabbit: Rabbit as an experimental model". 2015-2017. Research leader.

- Project of the National Research Plan "Multi-omics research on environmental sensitivity, longevity and fat deposition in rabbit selected lines". 2018-2020. Research leader.

- Project of the Generalitat Valenciana "Increased longevity and resilience in commercial rabbit maternal lines". 2020-2021. Research leader.

- Project of the National Research Plan "Creation of two lines selected for food efficiency and resilience." 2022-2024. Research leader.

 

 Integrated Actions

With ABRO-Roslin Institute (UK) 

1. Uterine capacity in pigs and rabbits. 1991-1993. Leader of the Spanish team.

2. Genetic analysis of litter size components of rabbits and pigs. Detection of QTLs. 2000 - 2002. Leader of the Spanish team.

 

With SGQA - INRA (France) 

1. Genetics of ovulation rate and embryo survival in pigs and rabbits. 1992. Leader of the Spanish team.                     

2. Genetic improvement of the reproductive efficiency in rabbits. 1993 - 1994. Leader of the Spanish team.            

3. Genetic analysis of litter size components in pigs and rabbits. 1996 - 1998. Leader of the Spanish team.

AWARDS

- National Genetics Award 2023

- Award of Asociación Interprofesional para el Desarrollo Agrario at the best paper of 1986

- Award of the European Association for Animal Production at the best paper presented in the Genetic section of the 43^rd Annual Meeting, 1992.

- Award of Asociación Interprofesional para el Desarrollo Agrario at the best paper of 1995.