Dr. Adrià López-Baucells

Adrià López-Baucells completed his PhD at the University of Lisbon in 2018 investigating the effects of Amazonian rainforest fragmentation on tropical bats. His main research interests include the study of habitat connectivity, loss, and fragmentation worldwide, all under the umbrella of applied ecology, with special emphasis on the use of technology for conservation. More recently, he has also joined quite a few bat-related expeditions in French Guiana, Brazil, North Africa, Kenya, and Madagascar, where he has finally become a National Geographic Explorer. As a National Geographic Explorer, he is now establishing a new project based in Madagascar, a country that is totally dependent on subsistence rice agriculture, with big problems of harvest loss, and heavily threatened endemic bat populations due to the vast deforestation.

Dr. Carles Flaquer Sánchez

Carles Flaquer Sànchez completed his PhD at the Autonomous University of Barcelona in 2009. He founded the Natural Science Museum of Granollers Bat Department in 2000 and is working as a coordinator of this Bat Research Group and the Natural Science Museum of Granollers itself. In 1999 he started to use bat detectors to study bat populations in Natural Parks and combined this method with other ones allowing him to describe new species for the area and defining the first Atlas and Red List of Catalonian Bats. The main goal of his latest research period has been to create a biodiversity monitoring program based on citizen science, participate in hundreds of events in TV, radio, newspapers and produced and participated in the Human and Bats documentary filmed around the world.

Dr. Juan Manuel López-García

Juan Manuel López-García has a doctorate in prehistory from the Universitat Rovira i Virgili (URV-Tarragona) and is currently a researcher at the Catalan Institute of Human Paleoecology and Social Evolution (IPHES-Tarragona). His main line of research focuses on the study of chronological, environmental, and climatic reconstructions during the Quaternary through the study of small mammals, including insectivores, bats, and rodents. Among many others, he has been participating in the excavation campaigns in the Sierra de Atapuerca since 2004 and is currently co-responsible for the recovery of the small vertebrates remains from these excavations. Throughout his research career, he has directed various research projects, organized various scientific conferences, participated in numerous talks, both scientific and dissemination, directed various doctoral theses, and collaborated with numerous international research centers in France, Italy, and Portugal, among others.

Dra. Maria Mas Navarro

Maria Mas has recently finished her PhD focused on the relationship between bats in wetlands in a context of Climate Change, based on the Ebro Delta, one of the biggest deltas in West Europe. She aims to evaluate the knowledge gap regarding bat-wetlands interaction and the importance of these threatened habitats during some specific relevant periods, such as the hibernation. Her first contact with bats was during the bachelor's degree at UAB and continued her scientific apprenticeship developing her Master thesis focused on vertical stratification of insectivorous bats in the Central Amazon. Since then, she focused all her attention and dedication to learn the intricate secrets of bat’s life, through the study of bat echolocation and collaborating and working on several projects at the Bat Research Group in the Natural Sciences Museum of Granollers. Since 2021, she is coordinating the Atlas of Mammals from Catalonia.

Dr. Xavier Puig-Montserrat

Xavier Puig-Montserrat completed his PhD at the University of Girona in 2021, focused on the interactions between bats and agroecosystems, from both a functional pest-prey interaction and a conservation perspective. As a member of the board of the Spanish Society for the Study of Bats (SECEMU), he has authored the first national bat monitoring guidelines, coordinated the national cave bats’ survey, and he is currently the supervisor of the Spanish bat atlas. Integration of technology in the bat research has always been a central part of his work, working on the implementation of solutions that allowed the growth of an extensive network of monitoring sites in Catalonia. He is currently advising the local government and nature protection agencies on the best practices to mitigate the impact of wind farms on bat populations.