Albert Rene

My professional experience has been developed along 15 years with activities related with the study of the morphological and genetic diversity of marine microorganisms. Such activities and the formation received have allowed me to be recognized as an experienced taxonomist. This field has been traditionally based on morphological approaches, but I’ve always been interested in applying and combining molecular techniques to determine the identity and diversity of organisms studied. I’ve always complemented taxonomic studies with ecological and experimental approaches to understand the role, dynamics and interactions of coastal protists and dinoflagellates producing harmful algal blooms. During early stages, I participated in contracts with the Agència Catalana de l’Aigua (Generalitat de Catalunya) to monitor toxic phytoplankton, contracts that continue nowadays. During my PhD entitled “Taxonomy and diversity of naked dinoflagellates in the Catalan coast”, I systematically incorporated the molecular information to taxonomic studies, being nowadays mandatory for their identification and classification. Such approach was combined with different microscopy techniques (bright field, epifluorescence, confocal, transmission and scanning electron microscopy). During my postdoctoral stage (2014-2021), I conducted several stays abroad (DZMB Germany, Univ. Paris-Sud France, SZN Italy, Tvärminne Zoological Station Finland), allowing me to incorporate expertise on the diversity of benthic dinoflagellates, and several molecular techniques. I’m especially interested in applying molecular techniques like metagenetics to explore the diversity of protists, in this case, from coastal benthic habitats. This is the research line I’ve been conducting during the last years and international stays allowed me to establish several international collaborations, reflected in the recent papers published on this topic. On February 2022, I obtained a permanent position at ICM (CSIC).