Adrià López-Baucells completed his PhD at the University of Lisbon in 2018. During his doctorate he studied the effects of Amazonian rainforest fragmentation on tropical bats using autonomous ultrasound detectors. His main research interests include the study of habitat connectivity, loss and fragmentation worldwide, all under the umbrella of applied ecology, with special emphasis on the use of technology for conservation. In his projects, he understand the ‘soundscape’ exploration (the landscape of sounds that exist in nature) as a path to promote sustainable land use as well as to protect some of the most severely threatened species and habitats.

He started working with bats at the Natural Science Museum of Granollers in 2005, where he met his first mentors, who rapidly introduced him to the intricate secrets of bats. Since then, he has collaborated on numerous international bat conservation projects shaping his scientific knowledge and background. As a bat researcher, he is especially interested to find applied, clear solutions to the current threats that bats are seriously facing all over the world. After five years of bat research in Europe, in 2010, he concluded his BSc with a final project on bats in Colombia, his first contact with Neotropical species. Afterwards, he jumped to Australia to carry out his MSc thesis studying competitive behavior between flying foxes. And more recently, he has also joined quite a few bat-related expeditions in French Guiana, Brazil, North Africa, Kenya and Madagascar, where he has finally become a National Geographic Explorer.

The assessment of the ecosystem services provided by bats represents now one of his most important types of research, especially with the aim to efficiently connect the society with bat conservation needs worldwide. As a National Geographic Explorer he is now establishing a new project based in Madagascar, a country that is totally dependent of subsistence rice agriculture, with big problems of harvest loss, and heavily threatened endemic bat populations due to the vast deforestation.