Professor María Jesús Ferrara Guerrero was born in January 1949 in the city of Chetumal, Quintana Roo. She studied Biology and a Master of Science (Biology) at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México UNAM; she did her Ph.D. in Oceanography (marine microbiology) at the University of Aix-Marseille, France, and a postdoctoral stay in new techniques for isolation of microaerophilic bacteria from coral reef samples and deep hydrothermal systems at IRD in Marseille, France. She has been a member of the Program for the Development of Teaching Personnel for Higher Education (PRODEP) since 2009 and until 2022.

Her research is focused on microbial ecology (biogeochemical cycles of carbon and nitrogen) of aquatic ecosystems and agricultural soils, taxonomy, and metabolism of microaerobic and aerobic heterotrophic and phototrophic bacteria of marine and terrestrial origin. She is a founding member and head of the Microbial Ecology Laboratory of the Department of Man and his Environment of the Xochimilco Campus.

She has done research stays at the Laboratory of Ecology and Microbial Biochemistry of the Marine Environment, CNRS in Marseille; at the Laboratory of Applied Algology of Pleubian (Brittany), Mediterranean Institute of Oceanography (MIO) in Marseille and the Laboratory of Quaternary Geology with the group of biogeochemical isotopes (CEREGE), Aix-en-Provence. She has been a researcher responsible for a project of the Modernization Fund for Higher Education Program (FOMES) for the acquisition of research equipment for the Microbial Ecology laboratory; for a CONACyT research project, for two projects with SEDESOL; Mexican responsible for the research project: Impact of anthropogenic disturbances on microbial communities in a shallow tropical ecosystem. Laguna de Sontecomapan, State of Veracruz (Mexico).

Collaboration IRD (France)-UAM-Xochimilco, ECOS-NTE-ANUIES-CONACYT-SEP Program (2011-2014). Currently head of the Institutional project: Genetic and functional diversity and mineralizing activity of heterotrophic and phototrophic bacterial communities involved in carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, and sulfur fluxes in water bodies and soils under oxygen stress. She collaborates in several research projects with professors of the Department of Agricultural and Animal Production of the Xochimilco Campus and with specialists in microalgae and zooplankton of the Department of Man and his Environment and UNAM with whom she has had Ph.D. (6) and Master's (12) students. From 2010-2013. Mexican responsible for the cooperation agreement between IRD and UAM Xochimilco Campus for studying trophic interrelationships within the microbial web of Mexican marine water bodies (Dr. Marc Pagano, French responsible). Second collaboration period (2016-2020) for studying the ecology and biodiversity of Mexican shallow water bodies threatened by anthropogenic activities.

She has been the coordinator of the Ph.D. in Biological and Health Sciences, UAM (2011-2015) and is currently a member of the Academic Commission of the Master in Applied Ecology of the Xochimilco Campus and head of the SyPERAT Research Area of the Department of Man and his Environment; she has been Academic Advisor (2001-2003 and 2015-2017) and Divisional Advisor (2005-2006) and was part of the Area Review Committee of this Institution (2017-2019).