Pilar Catalan is Professor in Botany at the University of Zaragoza and visiting Professor at Tomsk State University. She is the head of the Bioflora research team and the leader of scientific networks with Latin American institutions. She joined the scientific consortium for the study of the model monocot genus Brachypodium. She was awarded Corresponding member of the Botanical Society of America. Pilar is interested in grass diversity and evolution and polyploid speciation using biological, genomic and evolutionary approaches.