Ignacio (Nacho) Juarez Martínez

Penguinologist

My name is Nacho and I come from Avila, a little town up the mountains in central Spain. For my undergrad, I did biology and Biochemistry in Madrid but I decided my thing was to be in the field and not in the lab. My main interest is conservation science and research although I have been involved in several conservation practice projects mostly on endangered seabirds. Currently I am doing a PhD in penguin conservation and behaviour trying to look into what is the status of penguin populations in western Antarctica, what are the main threats for them and how are they responding.

In our research group, we often get involved in outreach activities – mostly in the Quark expedition cruises that take us to Antarctica, but also online thanks to platforms like Oxford Sparks and TED-Education. Aside from this, I try to do a bit of outreach through my Instagram account, where I try to give context to the pictures I take while in nature.