Carmen Ascaso

Research interests: lichen symbiosis, ultrastructure, ecophysiology, and thallus-substrate interactions. Currently she is working on the microbial ecology of the extremely arid environments: Antarctica and Atacama Desert. Since the late 1990's, she has been working on the biodeterioration processes and effects of biocides. She was working with the samples exposed to outer space conditions in Biopan V and VI. Her team discovered the existence of life within the rocks of Atacama Desert.