José‐Miguel Barea 1942–2018: the man that always smiles

Jos e-Miguel Barea passed away on 3 April 2018 at the age of 75. He was an internationally recognized soil microbiologist that dedicated almost 46 years of his life to study mycorrhizae. One of his favourite sayings that he used in talks and lectures was ‘trees do not have roots, they have Mycorrhizae’, a phrase that he used to emphasize the fact that close to 80% of all plants on the Earth exhibit mutualistic symbiosis with mycorrhizal fungi. His focus on mycorrhizae was, in a way accidental, or as he said in his membership lecture for the Academy of Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry and Natural Sciences in Granada, it was a ‘stroke of fortune’. Jos e-Miguel studied Pharmacy at the University of Granada and before he finished his degree, he started to work with microbes in the Department of Microbiology. Under the wise supervision of Vicente Callao, he focused his thesis work on soil bacteria that solubilize phosphate and influence plant growth. He completed his PhD in Microbiology in 1968, and his thesis work laid the foundation for the study of biofertilizers in Spain. The novelty and quality of his work won him the highest honour from the University of Granada known as the ‘Premio Extraordinario de doctorado’. He married Rosario (Charo) Azc on in September 1972, and at the end of their honeymoon, they ended up at Harpenden (UK), where they worked for a few months at Rothamsted Experimental Station (today Rothamsted Research Laboratory). It was here that Charo dedicated her time to work on phytopathology, while Jos e-Miguel continued his work by studying bacteria that solubilized phosphate with Margaret Brown. During an opportune chat between Jos e-Miguel and Barbara Mosse – one of the earliest world leading experts in mycorrhizae – their conversation finished with the question: ‘Why only focus on phosphobacteria, when the plant growth is so intricately tied to mycorrhizal fungi?’ Jos e-Miguel and Charo returned to Granada, where at the age of 30, he obtained a permanent position at the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas (CSIC) at the Zaidin Experimental Station (or ‘El Zaidin’ as Jos e-Miguel liked to call it). It was here that they started to work on mycorrhizae, and in July 1974, Jos e-Miguel attended the first meeting on endomycorrhizas, which was held in Leeds. There, he presented a talk titled, ‘Possible synergistic interactions between Endogone and phosphate-solubilizing bacteria in low-phosphate soils’. Jos e-Miguel completed his most important life work at ‘El Zaidin’, and it was there that he became a full-time professor in 1984. He served as the Head of the Microbiology Department, Vice-Director of the Institute between 1983 and 1987, and Director of the Institute between 1989 and 1998. During his time as Director, he promoted EU-wide collaboration, initiated the expansion of the institute and completed the first of a series of laboratory renovations. He also worked hard to establish a new set of laboratories for the Department of Animal *For Correspondence. E-mail juanluis.ramos@eez.csic.es; Tel: 134696408375