María Cerezo is a Professor of Logic and Philosophy of Science in the Department of Logic and Theoretical Philosophy of the Complutense University of Madrid. Her research trajectory has been centred on issues on the origins of Analytic Philosophy and, in particular, on Wittgenstein’s Tractatus Logico-philosophicus. More recently, she has started to work on Philosophy of Biology and Metaphysics of Science, and is now leading a project on the Metaphysics of Biological Sciences.

Research Interests: persistence of living entities (organisms, species); conceptual issues in reproduction and development; causality and dispositions in biological phenomena, in particular, genetics and development; processual teleology

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Contact: macere03[at]ucm.es

Laura Nuño de la Rosa is a philosopher of biology working on the history and philosophy of developmental biology and evolutionary developmental biology (evo-devo). Graduated in Humanities, in 2010 she obtained a Master’s Degree in Biophysics at the Autonomous University of Madrid. In 2012 she obtained a Ph.D. on the problem of organismal form in contemporary biology, at the Complutense University of Madrid and the Paris 1-Sorbonne University. After enjoying postdoc positions at the KLI Institute (Klosterneuburg, Austria) and the University of the Basque Country, in 2015 she joined the Department of Logic and Theoretical Philosophy at the Complutense University, where she is currently an assistant professor. 

Research Interests: Her current interests combine research on the recent history of evolutionary biology with the study of epistemological and ontological issues in contemporary biology, as well as the social implications of biosciences, including synthetic biology, theories of reproduction, and the sciences of the COVID-19 pandemic.

ResearchGate profile

Contact: lauranun[at]ucm.es

Vanessa Triviño is a philosopher of biology focused on exploring the way metaphysics can help to clarify and characterize conceptual and theoretical problems in biology and philosophy of biology. In particular, she is focused on exploring the metaphysical assumptions and ontological implications given in different biological theories such as those characterizing fitness, organisms and holobionts, among others. She was graduated in Philosophy in 2012 and obtained a Master’s Degree in Contemporary Philosophy in 2013, in the University of Murcia. In 2014 she obtained a PhD fellowship from the Fundación Séneca: Agencia de Ciencia y Tecnología de la Región de Murcia, to work on her Ph.D. She did research stays at the KLI Institute (Klosterneuburg, Austria) in 2015; The Egenis (Éxeter, U.K) in, and the Complutense University of Madrid in 2017. In 2019 she obtained her Ph.D on 'Questions at the intersections between metaphysics and biology: towards a metaphysics of biology', at the University of Murcia. Currently, she is assistant professor at the Complutense University of Madrid. 

Research Interests: Her main interests are in metaphysics, in particular in questions regarding persistence, change and identity; and in philosophy of biology, addressing problems related to the characterization of organisms and individuals. 

Researchgate profile

Contact: vanesa.trivino[at]urjc.es  

Cristina Villegas is a philosopher of biology working on probabilities and the notion of chance in evolutionary biology. She graduated in Philosophy (Sevilla, 2013), and obtained Master's Degrees in Education (Granada, 2014) and Logic and Philosophy of Science (Santiago de Compostela, 2015). In 2015, she joined the Complutense University of Madrid with a predoctoral fellowship from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness. She obtained her PhD in 2020 (thesis: 'Variational Probabilities and Developmental Propensities. A Philosophical Study of Chance in Evolutionary Variation'). She was a postdoctoral fellow at the Konrad Lorenz Institute for Evolution and Cognition Research in Austria (2021-2022), and she is currently a postdoctoral researcher at the Centro de Filosofia das Ciências da Universidade de Lisboa.

Research interest: Philosophy of evolutionary biology; Philosophy of probability; Chance in evolution; Causality and dispositional explanations; Evolutionary developmental biology.

Profiles: Researchgate, Academia

Contact: cvillegas[at]fc.ul.pt

Juan Campos Quemada is a part time lecturer at Complutense University of Madrid (UCM), where he teaches philosophy of nature and advanced courses in the philosophy of physics and biology. He graduated in Physics at UCM, and took advanced courses in Astrophysics (2005, Autonomous University of Madrid) and Education (2005, UCM). He obtained his Master's Degree in Advanced Studies in Philosophy (2010), and his PhD (2019, thesis: "Quantum Darwinism: The Concept of Information and the Darwinian Metaphysics") at Complutense University of Madrid.

Research interests: His research focuses on the foundations of quantum mechanics and their relation with epistemological and ontological aspects of evolutionary biology. He has devoted part of his publications to clarify the possible influence of quantum indeterminism in evolution; the role of probability in a hypothetical quantum origin of life; and the conceptual, epistemical and ontological problems around the interactions between information theory, quantum mechanis and the theory of natural selection.

Contact: jcq[at]fis.ucm.es

Stella Villarmea is Professor of Philosophy at Complutense University of Madrid, and Associate Faculty Member in Philosophy at the University of Oxford. As a Marie S. Curie Fellow at the University of Oxford, she led the research project, ‘Controversies in Childbirth: From Epistemology to Practices (VOICEs)’. As the principal investigator of the project  ‘Philosophy of Birth: Rethinking the Origin from Medical (PHILBIRTH-1)’, she coordinated an interdisciplinary team of philosophers, health practitioners and social scientists around childbirth and birth care. She currently leads a Programme of Excellence on the Philosophy of Birth (PHILBIRTH-2) at Complutense University of Madrid.

Research interests: Villarmea is a main contributor to the emergent field of the philosophy of birth. With an expertise in epistemology and feminism, her works address the philosophical relation between knowledge and emancipation. She has published on conceptual innovation and scepticism, as well as on Wittgenstein, Kant, and Levinas. Her outreach activity focuses on the educational and health sectors.

Profiles: Academia, Oxford profile, Values-based practice profile

Contact: svillarm[at]ucm.es

Arantza Etxeberria Agiriano is Full Professor of Philosophy of science the University of the Basque Country. She studied Philosophy at the Complutense University of Madrid, and did her PhD at the University of the Basque Country. Then she had a postdoc at the University of Sussex. Recent undergraduate and postgraduate courses she has taught are in Philosophy of Science, History of Biology and Medicine, and Philosophy, Science and Society. She is a researcher at the IAS-Research Group on Life, Mind and Society, where she has been the Principal Investigator of various projects, such as one on Interidentities. Recently she has co-edited two journal monographic collections on Interidentity ("Interidentities in Life, Mind and Society"; in Frontiers in Psychology, 2021) and on Sandra Mitchell's philosophical work on the complexity of science and society in Theoria, 2024. Among others some original works she has published over the past few years have been on interdependence relations between the agents involved in reproduction and biological evolution.

Research interests: Her work addresses philosophical challenges associated with the history of concepts of biological organization and autonomy, individuality, and the organism-environment relation, with special attention to reproduction and developmental evolution (evo-devo). She also has a special interest in the history and philosophy of organicism in biology and in artificial domains (AI, ALife), as well as in accounts of sex-gender classifications in biology and their normativity in medicine.

Profiles: Personal Web Page, ResearchGate, Google Scholar

Contact: arantza.etxeberria[at]ehu.eus

Benazir Flores Valdivia is a Ph.D. student in Philosophy at the Complutense University of Madrid. She obtained a Degree in Philosophy at the University of Valencia (2013) and later concluded her Master's studies in Thought Creation (Escuela Contemporánea de Humanidades, 2018), Contemporary Culture (Complutense University and Ortega y Gasset Institute, 2018) and Education (Complutense University, 2020). Currently, she is a PhD student at the Department of Logic and Theoretical Philosophy (UCM) under the supervision of Laura Nuño de la Rosa and Vanessa Triviño. Her doctoral dissertation focuses on “Process Metaphysics in biology: a discussion of biological identity”. Her PhD research is being funded by the CONACYT program developed by the Mexican government.

Research interests: Benazir research interests concern metaphysical assumptions and implications of scientific practices. Specifically, she investigates the virtues and limitations of process metaphysics in accounting for the identity and persistence of organisms. 

Contact: benazirf[at]ucm.es

Juan Jacobo Ibarra graduated in Philosophy and Letters at the University of Nariño (Colombia) in 2016. In 2019, he obtained his Master's Degree in Literature at the University of Barcelona (Spain). Since 2020, he is a doctorate student at the Department of Logic and Theoretical Philosophy, Complutense University of Madrid. His thesis, supervised by Laura Nuño de la Rosa, deals with The Realism-anti-realism controversy: new naturalistic and materialistic approaches. 

Research interests: scientific realism, new materialisms, evolutionary epistemology.

Salvador Tlamatini Esparza García is a doctoral student in Philosophy at the Complutense University of Madrid. He earned his degree in Philosophy from the University of Guadalajara in 2014 and his master's degree in Philosophical Studies from the same institution in 2017. Currently, he is pursuing his doctoral studies under the supervision of Dr. María Cerezo, with the title: "A Critical Review of the Concept of System in Mario Bunge through Anglo-American Philosophy of Science."

Research Interests: Philosophy of science, materialism, metaphysics, system, emergence.

Contact: salvespa[at]ucm.es

Carolina Cuadrado Bastos holds a dual degree in Political Science and Philosophy from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid. In 2022, she completed the Master's program in Epistemology of Natural and Social Sciences at the same institution. Currently, she is pursuing a Ph.D. with a FPU fellowship, under the supervision of Laura Nuño de la Rosa. Her main research interests concern the epistemology of climate science, focusing on the interactions between epistemology, ethic, and politics that arise in this domain.

Research Interests: epistemology, climate models, values in science.

Contact: carocuad[at]gmail.com

Turad Miguel Turad Lorenzo is a Ph.D. student in Philosophy at the Complutense University of Madrid. He earned his Bachelor's degree in Physics from the Autonomous University of Madrid in 2021, followed by the completion of a Master's degree in Epistemology of Natural and Social Sciences at the Complutense University of Madrid. Currently, he is pursuing his doctoral studies in the Department of Logic and Theoretical Philosophy (UCM), where he holds a position under the supervision of Laura Nuño de la Rosa and María Cerezo. His research is supported by an FPI scholarship, providing essential financial backing for his academic pursuits. His doctoral dissertation focuses on exploring potential avenues to redirect the current ontological debate between reductionist and emergentist positions in the philosophy of science.

Research Interests: Emergence, philosophy of physics, metaphysics, epistemology and reductionism.

Contact: turadtur[at]ucm.es

Alejandro Perea Martínez is a Ph.D. student in Philosophy at the Complutense University of Madrid under the supervision of Dr. María Cerezo. He completed his Master in Epistemology of Social and Natural Sciences at the Complutense University of Madrid in June 2023, acquiring a solid foundation in Epistemology and Philosophy of Science, as well as the ability to handle advanced concepts and methodologies in philosophical research. In addition, Alejandro has studied Philosophy at the Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia, and also holds a degree in Fine Arts from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid.

His final thesis, in June 2023, investigates the recent history and characteristics of grounding, and attempts to postulate it as the primary notion of metaphysical explanation. Alejandro considers on the one hand that metaphysics has been unjustly vilified by various philosophical currents of the past and that careful study has the capacity to illuminate contemporary debates in the sciences by exposing problematic assumptions, and on the other hand that such research must be done in close collaboration with and always duly informed by the particular sciences.

Research Interests: Aristotelian metaphysics, meta ontology and general philosophy of science, focusing particularly on material composition, causality, agency and explanation, as well as debates on reductionism and pluralism.

Contact: aperea09[at]ucm.es

Marina Acero is currently an Invited Investigator and Postdoctoral Researcher in the Department of Logic and Theoretical Philosophy at the Complutense University of Madrid, under the guidance of Prof Stella Villarmea. She actively contributes to the research projects 'Philosophy of Birth' and 'BioKoinos’.

In 2020, she obtained 'Severo Ochoa'; PhD fellowship at the University of Oviedo to complete her doctoral thesis: 'On Monsters, Mothers, and Chimeras: Abjection, Vulnerability, and Resistance. Towards a Philosophy of Reproduction'. She taught at the same university and did research stays at the Praxis Research Group, CFUL (University of Lisbon), and ITRALI (University of Guadalajara).

In 2016, she received a CONACYT scholarship to pursue a Master's in Social Anthropology at CIESAS-Sureste. She investigated on suicide narratives within indigenous populations and explored self-management and mutual support groups in mental health. She started to think about the link between mental health, attachment and birth, following studies about traditional midwifery. She graduated in Philosophy (UNED, 2015), where she was recognized with the Faculty of Philosophy's Academic Excellence Award. Thanks to a Santander Universities scholarship, she explored decolonial and intercultural studies during a research stay at the University Michoacana de San Nicolás de Hidalgo.

Her primary focus is on understanding how we, from a Western cultural perspective, conceptualize the pregnant body and its relation to recognition problem and intersubjectivity processes. Therefore, her areas of interest include the philosophy of birth and reproduction, intersubjectivity and identity, perinatal and mental health, as well as aesthetic, literary, and cinematic expressions related to reproduction and birth.

Contact: aceromarina[at]uniovi.es / caracero[at]ucm.es / marinasacero[at]gmail.com

Bruna Fani Duarte Rocha is currently an Invited Investigator and PhD Researcher in the Department of Logic and Theoretical Philosophy at the Complutense University of Madrid, under the guidance of Professor Stella Villarmea. She actively contributes to the research projects 'Philosophy of Birth' and 'BioKoinos.’

Through the issuance of studies and research, she aims to foster a dialogue between two fields of knowledge, Philosophy and Anthropology, focusing on the Philosophy of birth and motherhood and their intercultural translations in European and Latin American contexts. Her primary focus is to understand the politicization process of motherhood in the contemporary construction of activism against obstetric violence, through the political action of the association El Parto es Nuestro.

She obtained the scholarship PRINT/CAPES from the Brazilian Government to come to Madrid with the project "Maternity and Feminism: an ethnography about the association El Parto es Nuestro from Madrid, Spain." In 2022, she received an Honorable Mention award in the Human Rights category from the Brazilian Anthropology Association for the paper "PARTO, VIOLÊNCIA OBSTÉTRICA E EMOÇÕES: O (RE)CONHECIMENTO DA DOR NO COTIDIANO DE MÃES ENLUTADAS E DE 'MÃES ESPECIAIS," published by the association editor.

In 2019, she received a CAPES scholarship to pursue a Master's in Social Sciences at Universidade Federal de Santa Maria (UFSM). She investigated experiences of obstetric violence within social movements and explored the relationship between emotions and politics. She began to consider the link between emotions and political practices, pregnancy, and birth, following studies on obstetric violence. She graduated in Letras (UFSM, 2015), where she received government support with student housing, university restaurant, and economic support.

Contact: faniduartee[at]gmail.com / brduarte[at]ucm.es

Juan Carlos Gallego-Gómez completed his undergraduate studies in Medicine at the University of Quindío (Colombia). He holds a Biology degree, with a major in Genetics and a notable emphasis on zoology, from the University of Valle. He obtained his PhD in Molecular Biology from the Autonomous University of Madrid and the National Center of Biotechnology (CNB-CSIC) in Spain. Currently, he serves as a professor and researcher at the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Antioquia in Medellín, Colombia. He leads the Molecular and Translational Medicine Group. Presently, he is pursuing a second PhD in Philosophy of Science at the University of Valle (Cali, Colombia) under the guidance of Juan Carlos Moreno-Ortíz from Saint Thomas Aquinas University in Bogotá, Colombia. His research interests span philosophy, history, and sociology of biology and medicine. His doctoral thesis focuses on the historical assembly of the cell as an epistemic-scientific entity using the historical epistemology approach. More recently, he has delved into exploring metaphysics within biology for comprehending the cell through the lenses of process and substantialist ontologies. 

Juan Carlos Gallego-Gómez visited BioKoinos from September 2023 to February 2024. During this period, he collaborated on research involving the development of metaphysical approaches to understanding the cell as an epistemic-scientific entity alongside Laura Nuño de la Rosa.

ResearchGate profile 

Contact: juan.gallego.gomez[at]correounivalle.edu.co 

David Cortés García is a graduate in Biology from the University of Salamanca (2018) who obtained his Master’s in Philosophy, Science and Values at the University of the Basque Country (2019), where he is currently working in his PhD in Philosophy of Biology under the supervision of Arantza Etxeberria and Mikel Torres.

Research Interests: He is interested the philosophy, history and social studies of biology. His current research is oriented towards organismal biology, evolutionary developmental biology (evo-devo) and organizational approaches to life as applied to understanding and theorizing reproductive processes in biology.

David visited BioKoinos from September to December 2023. During this period, he investigated the evolution of viviparity in conversation with Laura Nuño de la Rosa.

ResearchGate profile

Contact: david.cortes[at]ehu.eus

Francisco Haro Almansa graduated in philosophy in 2015. He is currently working on a doctoral thesis at the University of Málaga on the problem of the Indeterminacy of Matter in physics (from Laplace's demon to quantum mechanics) and in Aristotelian philosophy. His research focuses on the philosophical assumptions (ontological and gnoseological) of the problem of the indeterminacy of matter, such as the problem of causality, the concept of movement or the essence of matter. Francisco Haro Almansa defends the idea that the concepts of Aristotelian natural philosophy (especially "potency" or "ens per accidens") allow for an adequate resolution of this much debated question in contemporary physics.

Research interests: philosophy of nature, determination of matter, problem of causality, metaphysics, Aristotle, modern physics, quantum mechanics.

He visited BioKoinos from September 1st to November 30th 2022.