Sebastian Ernesto Ramos-Onsins

I am deeply interested in understanding the causes of evolutionary processes, particularly the importance of the forces involved in adaptation to environmental changes and how they operate. I enjoy developing diverse approaches and methods to infer the evolutionary processes that have occurred in populations. Simulation studies are my primary approach to understand the behaviour of the evolutionary forces under complex conditions. I am recently focusing on the study of the evolution of polyploidy and mating system as a mechanism of adaptation to rapid environmental changes. In collaboration with Dr. M. Abdelaziz (University of Granada), I will be participating in an ambitious project aimed at understanding the evolution of the Erysimum incanum complex species across different geographic scales, using both wild and greenhouse studies, along with various -omic methodologies.

I founded my own group in 2008 after obtaining the Ramon y Cajal position and developed my own lines of research: (i) analysis of nucleotide variability patterns, (ii) design of statistics and methods to detect different signals of evolutionary events, and (iii) software development to understand the causes of diversity. In the last 10 years, I have been the PI on three National Projects, PI on a competitive grant within CRAG, and have participated in five other competitive grants (National Thematic Network, Catalonia Quality Team).

My highest-impact contributions are related to software development and statistical development. I have developed significant code sections for DnaSP 6.0 (>3000 citations) and the R PopGenome library (>500 citations). In addition, my group has been developing statistical methods to analyze genomic variability data, others considering pools, missing data, autopolyploidy, and constructing statistical tests to detect evolutionary patterns (e.g., R2 >1000 citations). We have made relevant contributions in the study of variability in porcine and in melons, almonds, and olives.
Over the last 10 years, I have supervised four PhD students (a computer scientist, a physicist, an agricultural engineer, and a biochemist) and eight master's students (one mathematician, two biologists, and five bioinformaticians).

I have taught internships at the University of Barcelona in the core subject “Origin of Life and Evolution” and in the optional subject “Evolutionary Genetics” in 1996 and from 2004 to 2006. I have been a professor of the postgraduate course “DNA Phylogenies and Genealogies: Reconstruction and Applications” at the University of Barcelona from 2005 to 2023. I am a professor of the Master's Degree in Genetic Improvement and Reproductive Biotechnology at the Autonomous University of Barcelona since 2009 and of the Master's Degree in Bioinformatics at the Autonomous University of Barcelona since 2012. I have been accredited with 3 five-year periods by the General Secretariat of Research, Ministries of Science, Innovation and Universities (periods from 2008 to 2022).