Who am I?

Hi. My name is Michael and the first thing I want you to know about myself is that I am from , in , in the northwest of Spain. That is where my story starts, and in many ways, it still explains a lot about me.

I grew up playing football and hide and seek in the street, spending long hours outside, making up games, coming home tired, and living in that last generation that still had an before the phone took over everything. I honestly think I got lucky with that. Life felt more physical, more direct, and probably a bit less stupid.

gave me that. too. A place full of rain, character, humour, stubbornness, and people who do not usually need to say much to mean a lot.

And talking about people, my are a huge part of this story. They gave me the kind of support that does not usually make headlines, but quietly changes everything. Trust, effort, sacrifice, stability, humour, and the feeling that even if I kept pushing further away geographically, I was never really leaving behind.

My academic path started in , through biotech and biomedicine, but what really shaped me was the variety of places and people that came with it. In London, I worked in pancreatic cancer research. In Santiago de Compostela, I spent time around prion biology and rheumatoid arthritis. Each felt like a small country with its own rules and rituals.

Later in Sweden, my world opened even more. I moved there to complete my Master's in Biomedicine at Karolinska Institutet, supported by a scholarship from la . Coming from Lugo and landing in Stockholm was a real shift. Different rhythm, different weather, different culture, different everything.

I worked around recombinant spider silk production and later on projects involving bone and muscle from spaceflight mice, which brought together biology, health, and space in a way that felt almost suspiciously tailored to my interests. Science gave me discipline. My background gave me the stubbornness to keep going when the experiments did not.

sharpened me. It challenged me, gave me independence, and made me grow up quickly. I found beauty in the , the silence, and the long winters that taught you to sit still with your own thoughts.

Over time, my interests kept pulling me toward space. Not just because space is impressive, which it obviously is, but because it sits at the intersection of so many things I care about like science, health, exploration, human limits, international collaboration, and the possibility of meeting amazing people.

Later, a scholarship from Fundación Barrié made it possible for me to join the in . Support like that means a lot. Not just because it opens doors, but because it makes you feel that someone looked at your story and said, yes, this is worth backing.

Both foundations believed in a kid from , and I carry that responsibility with pride.

That is why I am now in , studying the Master of Space Studies. This programme has brought together many parts of my life that used to feel separate. Not a straight line, but definitely a pattern.

Finally, it would not be me if I didn't mention that have always been one of the most important parts of my life. It started with football in the street, but later, other disciplines became part of me too, especially , and .

So if I had to sum it up, I would say that I am someone who grew up , studied science across different disciplines and countries, found a home in both research and communication, kept drifting toward space until space became real, and along the way never stopped cooking, competing, or telling people about where I come from.

I care about science, but also about what science means. I care about excellence, but not the cold kind. I care about stories, places, people, effort, humour, food that makes you close your eyes, and the strange privilege of getting to build a path that did not exist for you in advance.

Enjoy living, learning and laughing.

The formal version

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