Rafael J. L. Morcillo

Rafael Morcillo is an Associate Researcher in the Institute for Water Investigation, at Univestiry of Granada (Spain). He got his bachelor's degree (Environmental Sciences) at the University of Granada. He completed his Ph.D. at the "Estación Experimental del Zaidín" (Spanish National Council for Scientific Research) where he studied the role of phytohormones during the establismenth of arbuscular mycorrhizal symbiosis.

After his PhD, he moved to China to complete a first postdoctoral at the Shanghai Center of Plant Stress Biology, under the supervision of Dr. Huiming Zhang, where he got a “President’s International Fellowship Initiative” (PIFI) from the Chinese Academy of Sciences (2016-2018; 2016PB044) to study the importance of nutritional status in plant growth promotion modulated by Plant Growth-Promoting Rhizobacteria. Additionally, he completed a second postdoctoral at the Shanghai Center of Plant Stress Biology, under the supervision of Dr. Alberto Macho. During this period, he investigated the role of hormone signaling in the interaction between plants (tomato, soybean and Arabidopsis) and the bacterial pathogen Ralstonia solanacearum.

He is at University of Granada as research associated, under the direction of Dr. Maximino Manzanera. Here, his research is focused on dryland recovery for agriculture by bacterial irrigation.