I am working as a Research Professor at the Instituto de Recursos Naturales y Agrobiología de Sevilla, Spain. Most of my research is dedicated to issues related to soil biochemistry. I am interested in the effect of vegetation fires on soil organic matter stability, which led me to the study of biochars. As a biochemist, I am highly interested in advancing analytical tools, e.g., solid-state NMR spectroscopy, for an improved understanding not only of the structure and function of soil organic matter, biochars, and related samples, but also the interactions between the former and the latter. In 2016, I was awarded the Philippe Duchaufour Medal of the European Geosciences Union for outstanding research in the field of soil organic matter on the impact of fire on humic materials and for furthering the knowledge of the origin and properties of pyrogenic soil organic carbon and nitrogen.