Manuel Villar-Argaiz; Ph.D. in Biology, 1999; Associate professor at the University of Granada, Spain. My thesis in Granada and postdoctoral research in the University of Minnesota focused on how chemical, physical and biological characteristics of organisms drive the relations of organisms to one another and scale up to the understand the processes that control the functioning and structure of continental aquatic ecosystems. I like to think of myself as a curious naturalist interested in the unique wonders of our natural world, and worried about how we are altering life on Earth. I now study the pristine lakes and rivers of Sierra Nevada in southern Spain. These unique ecosystems not only serve as sentinels of global change, but also contribute to educate society on the values of preserving nature for future generations.