The quality of the numerous scientific contributions of José Ignacio Valenzuela Ríos, as well as the high degree of international and multidisciplinary cooperation have been criteria for this designation at the IUGS, which belongs to the International Scientific Council and has more than one million members of about 120 countries. Until this moment and since 2004, the University professor was a full member (with voice and vote) of the International Subcommission on Devonian Stratigraphy (SDS). Among other functions, the expert will coordinate on an international scale the scientific policy related to this geological period of the United Nations Organisation.

The Devonian is a key period to understand the behaviour of the different evolutionary processes that the Earth has undergone. Among them, the relationship between the Geosphere and the Biosphere plays a crucial role in understanding the interactions between climate changes, their causes, their palaeoenvironmental effects and the biotic responses to these changes. Everything was reflected in the geological record, so the multidisciplinary study of the Devonian System is essential to inform society of the causes that led to climate changes and their effects on biota in the past.

José Ignacio Valenzuela Ríos is a member of the UNESCO International Scientific Committee on Global Change and Evolution of Life (since 2018) and president of the Spanish National Committee for PIGC-UNESCO projects (since 2014). He has been a visiting professor and researcher at American and European universities and research centres and has obtained various prestigious scholarships, such as the Humboldt, the Fulbright and the Salvador de Madariaga.

The professor at the Faculty of Biological Sciences also directs the Research Group on Paleontology and Paleogeography of Paleozoic invertebrates, vertebrates and plants. His scientific interest encompasses the history and life of the Earth in the Devonian, and pays special attention to understanding the ultimate causes and relationships between the evolutionary patterns of biota, physical and chemical changes on the Earth’s surface and the influence of disturbances caused by terrestrial dynamics.

The IUGS International Subcommittee on Devonian Stratigraphy promotes research on Earth Sciences. Among other objectives, it establishes the world standards of the timescale that are critical to expressing and understanding the history of the Earth, and in this way contributes to a better understanding of current problems, especially climate change.