I am a comparative psychologist with expertise in primatology and animal behaviour. Most of my research experience has focused on the comparative study of different animal species —principally non-human primates including great apes— in their natural environment, semi-free and captivity conditions. My research interest has been to understand the evolutionary and developmental bases of early childhood and the evolution of behaviour, cognition and sociality in humans. Some of the topics I am currently investigating include laterality and hand preferences, social learning and culture, communication, tool use and physical cognition, personality and emotions, social network analysis and socialisation, feeding ecology, comparative anatomy, psychopathology and the improvement of welfare and quality of life in non-human animals as a model of mental health in humans. Since 2018 I am member of the ManyPrimates network (https://manyprimates.github.io/), a large-scale collaboration for the study of primate cognition. I am also member of the Atapuerca Research Team. Since 2020 I am researcher at the "Language and Cognition" Research Group at UdG (GRHCS095 | 2017 SGR 01111) and of the «Long-tailed Macaque Project» (https://theltmproject.org/).
I obtained my PhD in Psychology at the Universitat Ramon Llull (Barcelona) where I was awarded the «Special Doctorate Prize» for my doctoral dissertation and a BSc in Psychology at the Universitat de Barcelona. I conducted my doctoral work investigating manual laterality in chimpanzees. I am a Serra Húnter Fellow - Lecturer in the area of Basic Psychology at the Universitat de Girona, where I teach courses on Psychobiology (BSc in Psychology), and on Basic and Developmental Psychology (BSc in Pedagogy and BSc in Criminology).
I am Director of the Master in Primatology (www.masterprimatologia.com) and Deputy Director of the Master in Scientific Illustration in Natural Sciences (https://www.fundacioudg.org/es/master-ilustracion-cientifica-ciencias-naturales/1/inicio.html) and the Postgraduate Course in Animal Behaviour at the University of Girona. I have been President of the Spanish Primatological Association (www.apespain.org) from 2014 to 2022 and member of its Board of Directors since 2009. I have also served on the Boards of the European Federation for Primatology and the International Primatological Society between 2014 and 2022.
I supervised a total number of 4 PhD dissertations, and arround 160 MSc theses, Postgraduate theses and BSc theses since 2003. I actively participate as a lecturer in primatology, animal welfare and developmental comparative psychology at several forums and media. I collaborate with various research projects, animal rescue centres and conservation projects in Spain, Portugal, Italy, United Kingdom, Germany, Mexico, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Canada, Mozambique, Cameroon, Zambia, Sierra Leone, Senegal, Indonesia, Vietnam or Laos.