ABOUT US

Spanish Association for the Conservation and Research of Bats

SECEMU

The Spanish Association for the Conservation and Research of Bats (SECEMU) is a non-profit national organisation which brings together people interested in conducting research and developing conservation activities in relation to the bats of Spain, with a particular emphasis on promoting their protection.

SECEMU was founded in 1989 and registered in the National Registry of Associations in 1991 with the number 90757.

WHERE TO FIND US

Department of Life Sciences

Faculty of Biology

Campus Universitario, Ctra. N-II, Km. 33,6. Universidad de Alcalá
28871, Alcalá de Henares (Madrid)

Council (2022-2026)

Juan Tomás Alcalde

PRESIDENT

Juan Tomás Alcalde (Navarre) is a PhD in Biological Sciences, working on conservation projects of bat populations, installation and monitoring of bat boxes and research into the impact of wind farms on these mammals.

ResearchGate

Javier Juste

VICEPRESIDENT

Javier Juste (Seville) is an Adjunct Professor at the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) and assigned to the Doñana Biological Station (EBD). He is a member of SECEMU almost since its inception and has throughout his life combined research activities (ecology and evolution of bats) with conservation, both theory and practice, especially as a United Nations expert in Central Africa.

ResearchGate

Maria Mas Navarro

SECRETARY

Maria Mas Navarro has a degree in Biology from the Autonomous University of Barcelona and a Master’s degree in Biodiversity from the University of Barcelona, where she researched the vertical stratification of the insectivorous bat communities of the Central Amazon. She is part of the bat research team at the Museum of Natural Sciences of Granollers, where she carries out projects on the conservation and dynamics of bat populations. She is currently working on her doctoral thesis on the relationship between wetlands and bats.

ResearchGate

Xavier Puig Monserrat

DEPUTY SECRETARY

Xavier Puig Montserrat has a degree in Environmental Sciences, and carries out bat research and conservation projects focusing on the study of communities and pest control within agroecosystems from the Galanthus Association and the Museum of Natural Sciences of Granollers.

ResearchGate

M. Jesús Celaya

TREASURER

María Jesús Celaya has a degree in Physical Sciences and a degree in Environmental Sciences. She currently collaborating in the production of the bat atlas.

 

Juan Emilio Echevarría Mayo

COUNCIL MEMBER

Juan E. Echevarría is a virologist at the National Centre for Microbiology (Carlos III Health Institute), where he is responsible for the National Rabies Reference Laboratory. He is Coordinator of the interdisciplinary VIROBAT projects on the search and characterisation of viruses associated with bats, where in this context some have been describes such as the LLoviu filovirus or the Lleida lisavirus, potentially relevant both for human health as well as the conservation of bats. The description of co-evolution models between viruses and bats and their application, both to the systematics of bats as well as to the study of interspecific transmission, is another of the basic lines of research of VIROBAT. He has been responsible over several years for the Health Section of SECEMU, which aims to ensure the implementation of best practices that safeguard both the health of handlers as that of the bats.

ResearchGate

Elena Tena

COUNCIL MEMBER

Elena Tena López is a postdoctoral researcher at the bat research group of the Doñana Biological Station (CSIC), in Seville, Spain. Her doctoral thesis, which she completed at the Complutense University of Madrid, was entitled “Distribution of the bats of central Spain using bioacoustics surveys: applications for conservation”. She has been SECEMU’s webmaster for some years now and is also co-founder of the Bats of Andalucía group. Since 2014 she has been carrying out research and various other projects on bats which she relates to environmental education.

ResearchGate

Laura Torrent Alsina

COUNCIL MEMBER

Laura Torrent Alsina graduated in Biology from the University of Vic, obtaining a master’s degree in Nature Conservation from the Czech University of Life Sciences Prague. She is currently working on her doctoral thesis on the bats of Equatorial Guinea with the bat research group at the Granollers Museum of Natural Sciences, in collaboration with the CIBIO-InBIO in Portugal and the Doñana Biological Station (CSIC), in Seville, Spain. She has 8 years’ experience in bat research and conservation at both national and international scales. She is also an associate editor of the Journal of Bat Research and Conservation.

ResearchGate

The SECEMU Council was elected at the Extraordinary General Meeting held on 2nd December 2017 in Alcalá de Henares (Madrid). The Council consists of eight people from different areas of the Iberian Peninsula and its islands, from the most varied personal and professional profiles, but all with the common passion for bats.

Members

Become a member

Would you like to form part of the largest organisation in the Iberian Peninsula, Balearics and Macaronesia solely devoted to the research and conservation of bats as well as raising awareness of the same? Become a member and not only will you be helping bats but you will also receive our latest updates and occasional materials…