Micronutrients in Agriculture
UAM Group

Prof. Juan José Lucena

Full Proffesor

I am Head Professor in Agricultural Chemistry and an experienced researcher on chemical characterisation and plant evaluation of novel micronutrient fertilisers. I am coordinated more than 40 research projects, including collaborations with other research institutions and supervised more than 12 PhD and Post-docs. I am participated in 12 books and have publications in 186 scientific journals and book chapters, 157 conferences communications and co-author of 5 patents in synthesis and use of chelates. I am also an expert member in the Spanish Agricultural Ministry concerning fertilisers and in the work groups of Chelated Trace Elements, and Fertilisers and Lime Material in the European Committee for Standardisation (CEN) and vocal member in the commission AEN/CTN-142 of AENOR.

Prof. Agustín Gárate Ormaechea

Full Professor

Prof. Lourdes Hernández Apaolaza

Associate Professor

I'm an Associate Professor at the Agricultural Chemistry and Bromatology Department at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Madrid (Spain). I started my research at this university in 1987 trying to develop clear lines in the iron chelates market to allow only high quality products to be sold to the farmers. We have described the presence of different isomers at commercial formulations, as well as different product richness than the ones declared at the product commercial label. Then I have focused my interest on other micronutrients such as zinc and manganese. We adhered these metals by complexing them with lignosulfonates (a pulp and paper industry byproduct) to NPK granules, to minimized farmers expenses on fertilizer application. Finally nowadays I´m interested on the silicon role on alleviating plant biotic and abiotic stresses. We have shown that the addition of silicon could ameliorate the iron and zinc deficiencies symptoms in plants (cucumber or soybean, at the moment) and we continue working in this subject, believing that we can understand how silicon could help plants under low micronutrient supply.

Prof. Felipe Yunta

Assistant Professor

I am assistant professor in Pedology and Agricultural Chemistry . My main research lines are focused on characterization, reactivity and environmental impact of synthetic iron chelates in soil/plant system. I am authoring more than 50 scientific publications in agricultural and environment sciences, including one international patent. I have participated in more than 20 research projects. I have managed more than 10 statistical reports in clinical research projects. I have more than 1500 teaching hours in agricultural, environmental and remote sensing fields. I have supervised 20 graduated projects, 50 master-thesis and currently I am supervising 3 Ph.D. I have been at three European universities (Leuven, Bologna and Stockohlm) as senior research and visiting professor researching on agricultural topics. Currently I am managing an international master module with African universities on social metabolism including agricultural practices.

Prof. Sandra López Rayo

Assistant Professor

I´ve been recently incorporated as Assistant Professor at the UAM. I am BSc in Chemistry (2005), and MSc (2007) and PhD (2012) in Agricultural Chemistry by the UAM.

My research activity has focused on the study of new micronutrient fertilizers, conducting studies under several conditions, from chemical characterization in the lab to evaluation in field by my participation in 15 national and international research projects. I have worked and collaborated with other research groups as the University of Copenhagen and the University of Bologna, places where I have mainly developed my postdoc research, the University of Tübingen, the University Complutense of Madrid, the University of Seville, and the University of Huelva. This work has resulted in the publication of 19 papers in international journals, 10 refereed book chapters and full-length symposium papers, 5 articles in specialized Agronomical and Phytosanitary magazines as well as communications outreach in 14 international and 8 national conferences, among other merits

Teresa Cieschi

Teaching assistant Ph.D.

Currently, I am a teaching assistant at the Department of Agricultural Chemistry and Food Science of the Autonomous University of Madrid. I have recently completed my Ph.D. in Agricultural Chemistry and the title of my thesis is “Iron Humates: characterization, evaluation, and improvement in iron nutrition of Strategy I plants grown in calcareous soils”. I studied the interaction between the iron,
the humic substances, and the rhizosphere during my PhD and I am willing to study more in-depth this matter as well as biogeochemical tools to continue my research training. I did an academic stay at the Lomonosov Moscow State University with Prof.
Irina Perminova´s group and I worked in collaboration with the Institute for Plant Molecular and Cellular Biology, CSIC (Polytechnic University of Valencia).
I am an MSc (2014) in Agricultural Chemistry and New Foods by the Autonomous University of Madrid, and a BSc in Chemistry (1999) by the National University of Litoral, Argentina. I have participated in 3 projects with fertilizer companies. These works resulted in 5 papers in peer-reviewed international journals, 1 refereed book chapter, and 12 communications in international conferences.

Alexandra Martín

PhD student

Graduate in Biochemistry and MSc in Plant Biotechnology by the Universidad Autónoma of Madrid. I am currently doing my PhD under the program of Agricultural Chemistry. My interest lies in studying the effects of the application of biostimulants in plants, and establishing the relationship between their physicochemical and structural characteristics and their efficacy related to micronutrients nutrition and fortification. The aim of my thesis is to deepen the knowledge of the mode of action of the biostimulants and the development of a discrimination system for marketed products

Javad Azimzadeh

PhD student

Have you ever heard about the global village? It is not a village in reality, but it means that the total worldwide phenomena are being compressed in a way that it seems succinct in appearance, but with lots of details through a deep perspective which also applies to the research works especially in chemistry-related fields. This compressing trend led me to be more into precision during my research works in order to have a role in this continuum. Hereupon, as a PhD student in the Department of Agricultural Chemistry and Bromatology of the Universidad Autonoma de Madrid at Spain, I conduct macroscopic and microscopic assessments about the effects of silicon on the plants, especially in micronutrients (mainly zinc and iron) deficiency conditions.

Although most of my previous research work before my PhD were about application of chemical fertilisers, organic fertilisers, different tillage systems, soil physical characteristics, yield and yield components of different crop plants and weed biomass in irrigated and specially rain-fed conditions, but both of my investigations before my PhD and also my current PhD research works are completely included in the areas of my interests to work on.

Alejandra Arcas Perea

Ph.D. student

Graduate in Chemistry by the University Autónoma of Madrid and MSc in Sciences in Agri-environmental and Agri-food Sciences by University Autónoma of Madrid and Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia.

Currently, I am a Ph.D. student in the Agricultural Chemistry and Food Sciences Department. My research focuses on the characterization of new micronutrient chelating agents, their uses as fertilizer, and their evaluation in the soil-plant system.

Meryem Farchado

Posgraduate researcher

​BSc in Chemistry (2014) and MSc in Chemical Science and Technology (2015) by the Universidad Complutense de Madrid. My current research in the Department of Agricultural Chemistry at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid is focused on the study/evaluation of the effect of the application of chelated metal micronutrients on the production and quality of a novel kind of tomato.

Fernando Luis Sánchez Casado

PhD Student

Currently, I am a PhD student at the Agricultural Chemistry and Bromatology Department, at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. The aim of my PhD thesis is the design and implementation of an operational methodology to quantify and monitor the spatio-temporal variability of agricultural soil functions and escosystem services, at field level and by means of ancillary variables (remote sensing and other geospatial data), bioindicators and rapid and cheap soil and plant physicochemical testing methods.

María del Carmen García-Rico

Post-graduate Researcher

Graduate in Chemistry by the University Autónoma of Madrid and, currently doing the MSc in Agricultural and Food Sciences by University Autónoma of Madrid and Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia.
My current research is focused on the study of the transfer of Mn from certain synthetic clays to the soil. In addition, I am currently supporting open lines of group research.

Fabiana Rocha Antenaza

Lab Technician 

Technician in Analysis and Quality control by the Lope de Vega Higher School in 2013 and Graduate in Chemistry by the University Complutense of Madrid in 2018. Currently, I support the research activities of the group.