I study floral traits in adult flowers as well as in several developmental stages to better understand how ecological factors, particularly pollinator-driven selection, shapes morphological evolution.

I have guided two research units and one memorial. During my Ph.D. I had the opportunity to collaborate in the supervision of two research units of undergraduate students at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. Both research units were about ontogenetic studies and their relation to the diversification of floral morphologies in different plant genera. One was on the ontogenetic basis of intraspecific floral diversification in Echinopsis chiloensis, which results were presented as a poster at the IV Reunión Binacional de Ecología, Iguazú, Argentina (“Diferencias poblacionales en el desarrollo y morfología floral de Echinopsis chiloensis”. 2016. Anatolle Schall, Javiera Chinga, Carmen Ossa, Fernanda Pérez). The other, was about ontogenetic studies on Calceolaria species with contrasting pollination system and their results were presented as a poster at the XXII Reunión Anual Sociedad de Ecología de Chile (“Integración ontogenética en dos especies de Calceolaria con diferentes sistemas de reproducción”. 2015. Paula Nuñez, Maureen Murúa, Javiera Chinga, Fernanda Pérez) where it won the prize for the best poster presentation. Finally, after my PhD I co-guided the memorial of Paula Herrera, a student of the architecture and urbanism faculty of the Universidad de Chile. The memorial was an urban pollination analysis based on Santiago and two peri-urban conservation reserves (Quebrada de la Plata y Aguas de Ramón).

Since 2017 I have been involved in outreach activities aimed to promote the knowledge, valuation, and use of our native flora in urban contexts. Particularly, I am a professor at the “Taller de Propagación de Plantas Nativas” (2017-present): a project focused on the formation of scholar monitors capable of reproducing the course at municipal schools or any community instance for free. In these three years, the project has formed around fifty scholar monitors and reaching more than 15 municipal schools. From this initiative, I co-founded a personal outreach organization called “PropagaNativas” which focused on outreach activities in social media (Instagram account with +10.000 followers) but also on outreach activities in association with universities. For example, I was a professor of the “Primer Curso de Propagación de Flora Nativa de Chile (Zona Centro)” (2019), in collaboration with the Center of Applied Ecology and Sustainability UC (CAPES-UC). These two activities gave me insights of people´s perceptions and attitudes towards native flora, their inclusion in urban environments, and conservation initiatives. Additionally, these activities help me to identify knowledge gaps regarding native flora and its conservation and how these gaps differed among different groups of people (e.g., people with no professional experience with plants, people working on plant nurseries, etc). Overall, the knowledge and experience I learned during these initiatives are related to the ecological and social objectives of this proposal. I attached certification for these activities (Annexe X).

Finally, I am the coordination of an extension project of the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile and the Municipality of Pirque called “Cientifica tu casa: Cuidadndo la casa común desde el Patrimonio natural” which consisted of the elaboration, delivery, and follow up of a kit of propagation of native flora for children of public schools at Pirque. This project is funded by the regional government (ML 00046). In this project, I designed the kits, the didactic material, the following up activities, and the divulgation activities in direct collaboration with the Municipality of Pirque and the Universidad Católica de Chile. I remark working with the municipality as an instance that improves my knowledge of how these public institutions relate with the conservation of their natural resources and develop my abilities to design strategies based on the need expressed by local authorities. This experience would probably improve my abilities to interpret the data obtained by this project into the design and implementation strategy for conservation initiatives based on green infrastructure.