Rodrigo Megía-Palma, PhD

During my pre-doctoral research at the National Museum of Natural History belonging to the Spanish Higher Research Council (CSIC), I joined the Parasite Ecology lab headed by Prof. Santiago Merino and that is focused on the study of avian malaria. With my thesis defended in 2016 and entitled “Molecular characterization of parasites that infect lizards and their influence on color ornaments” I initiated a new line of research in the lab and I have so far produced fourty research articles (35 in peer-review journals). In addition, I gathered a wide collection of more than 5,000 samples of blood smears of Squamata from different continents. In 2014, I had the opportunity to join Barry Sinervo’s lab at the University of California (http://bio.research.ucsc.edu/~barrylab/). During my quarter-long (3 months) stay at his lab I could gather data to publish five manuscripts (Zoological Scripta, Parasites & Vectors, Current Zoology (x2), Ticks and tick-borne diseases). In addition, I had the opportunity to mentor undergraduate students during their quarterly herpetological classes. I was invited by him to the field campaign in Namibia during 2014 and to France in 2016 when, additionally, I mentored one of his PhD students to survey parasites of lizards. In his own words: "His short stay [in Sinervo's lab] and our ongoing collaboration have catapulted the research on parasites in my laboratory to a new level". In Spain, I mentored thre Bachelor students (UB, UAM, and URJC) in their final year projects and two Masters' students (ULL, UMP-CSIC).  Also, I am currently collaborating as adjunt jury of a PhD thesis in UNAM (Mexico).

 

My PhD thesis obtained especial recognition by University Complutense de Madrid being awarded with the extraordinary PhD thesis award (2017). I obtained a contract as junior researcher in Portugal in Evolutionary Ecology to study parasites in lizards. Currently, I am lecturer of Diagnostic Methods in Clinical Parasitology at the School of Pharmacy in Universidad de Alcalá (Madrid), where I teach students different techniques used in the diagnosis of parasites in humans. However, my research is still fundamented on parasites of lizards.

 

TRAINING AND FELLOWSHIPS In 2007 I was granted by the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science with a “collaboration grant” that I enjoyed at the department of Zoology of the Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM). In 2008 I obtained my Bachelor’s degree in Biology at UCM. In 2009 I studied a Master’s degree in "Natural Reserves - FunGoBe” at Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM). In 2010 I obtained the Diploma of Advanced Studies (DEA; UCM). In the same year, I joined the Parasite Ecology lab at the National Museum of Natural History and headed by Prof. Santiago Merino. I was granted with 4-years full funded FPI fellowship (“Research Training Program” – 2010-2014) that I used to develop my predoctoral research at Merino’s lab. As PhD student I was funded by the “National Fellowship Program for short stays in foreign research centers” to travel to California where I joined, during three months, Barry Sinervo's lab (UCSC, USA). I surrendered my dissertation in January of 2016, which obtained the Extraodrinary PhD thesis Award of UCM (2017). In addition to my research pre-doctoral studies, I was trained in national and international courses: “Modelling in herpetology” (3 hours); “Course on physiological models of climate change impacts on reptiles and amphibians: New species distribution models in R (16 hours); “I National Course on Evolution: Sexual selection” (18 hours); “Phylogenies and genealogies of DNA: Reconstruction and Applications” (65 hours); “Course of zoological nomenclature” (20 hours); 70 hours of statistical advanced courses in MNCN (2018 and 2019), and advance course of niche modelling.

 

PUBLICATIONS Resulting of my research activity I have published so far thirty five in peer review scientific journals. I am first author in twenty of them and senior author in four. They were published in high quality ISI journal like Science of the Total Environment, Zoologica Scripta, and Journal of Biogeography. 85% of these articles were published in high-rank Zoology or Evolutionary journals (first quartile, Q1). I led, as first author, three scientific articles with ten or more authors where I coordinated researchers from Slovenia, Portugal, Spain, USA, Tunisia, Argentina, and India. Since 2018 my publications were cited more than 500 times (Google Scholar). I contributed with thirty five presentations in national and international conferences, and I participated as speaker in seminars and master's talks. I think dissemination is important and I also contributed with popular science articles in dissemination journals. In addition, I participated as referee in 55 peer reviewed publications such as Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, PeerJ, Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology, or Journal of Parasitology. I have a current H index of 14 (Scopus and Google Scholar, Sept 2020).

 

NATIONAL PROJECTS  I have been actively collaborating in three national projects funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Technology, and Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness:

 

• GCP2018-097426-B-C21 – Modulators of host-parasite relationships:climate & between-organisms interactions.

• CGL2015-67789-C2-1-P – Influence of climatic variables on the incidence of parasitic diseases.

• CGL2012-20026-C02-01/02 – Influence of parasitism on secondary sexual characters.

• CGL2009-09439 – Evolution of host-parasite interactions: Quantifying the success of transmission and effects of co-infection.

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INTERNATIONAL PROJECTS Since 2015 I am actively collaborating in an international project with Prof. Santiago Merino (National Museum of Natural History-CSIC), Prof. Sinervo (University of California, SC, USA), and Prof. Miguel Ángel Carretero (https://cibio.up.pt/people/details/macarret). My role is to coordinate the researchers implied in the studies of lizards.

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• GCRESPONSE: A reptile model & 3600 m of altitudinal gradient to infer the ectotherm responses to global change in Portugal.

• WETADAPT: Wet conditions under threat of Global Climate Change: adaptive & platicity potential of metabolism & water retention in terrestrial ectotherms.