Javier Arístegui is Full Professor of Ecology at the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (ULPGC), where he has been dedicated teacher, advisor of Master and PhD theses, and mentor of talented and enthusiastic young scientists during the past 30 years. Under his supervision 14 PhD students and numerous Master students successfully completed their degrees in biological oceanography at the Faculty of Marine Sciences of the ULPGC.

For more than 25 years, he worked closely with physical oceanographers on the dynamics of pelagic ecosystems, including studies on plankton ecology and ecophysiology, microbial oceanography and biogeochemistry. He has published over 120 publications and book chapters, coordinated 20 national and international projects, and participated in more than 30 oceanographic cruises across all major ocean basins, from polar to tropical seas.

He has served the scientific community as organizer and convener of a number of national and international conferences and symposia, ad-hoc reviewer for 10 national and international Science Foundations, reviewer for more than 30 international journals, Co-editor in chief of “Deep Sea Research II”, Associate editor of “Frontiers in Marine Science” and Guest editor of “Progress in Oceanography” and “Scientia Marina”. He was contributing author for the first Implementation Plan of the JGOFS-Time Series Stations and the implementation Plan of the Joint SOLAS_IMBER Ocean Carbon Research Carbon Cycle, as well as contributing author and reviewer for the chapter on “The Oceans” of the IPCC 5th Assessment Report.

He also formed part of the European Network of Excellence Eur-Oceans (2005-2007), and was Chair of the SSC IMBER-Spain (2007-2013), and member and Vice-Chair of the SSC IMBER international programme (2007-2013). Recently, he was awarded with the 2015 “Helmholtz International Fellow Award” (Helmholtz Association, Germany).