Jose is employed as an Assistant lecturer at the Department of Natural Sciences and a researcher at the MFRC since 2019. He is also an Adjunct Lecturer in Zoology at NUI Galway. A marine ecologist and scientific diver, his career spans almost 20 years in industry and academia, working in projects across Ireland, the UK and offshore (Black Sea, Canada, South America) and authoring over 70 scientific reports. He graduated in ecology from the University of León (Spain) and obtained a PhD in 2012 from Queen’s University Belfast, on keystone species and habitat restoration. This was followed by research fellow positions at Heriot Watt University (UK) and NUI Galway (Ireland). His research interests are the ecological functioning of marine habitats of high biodiversity, especially biogenic habitats (kelp, shellfish), following anthropogenic impacts and the development of novel approaches for impact amelioration and ecological restoration using keystone taxa and aquaculture