I graduated in Geology at the University of Barcelona (UB). During my PhD in Earth Sciences at the same university I benefited from training stays at the universities of Duke (USA), Florida State (USA), New Brunswick (Canada) and National Taiwan (Taiwan). I have participated in over 20 research cruises (more than 400 days at sea) in the Mediterranean Sea, the Atlantic, Pacific and Arctic oceans, and off Antarctica (2 as IP). My PhD thesis (summa cum-laude) on 'Sedimentary morphodynamics of siliciclastic passive continental margins' (2012) received different awards: (i) the prestigious prize of the Institut d'Estudis Catalans (Catalan Academy for Language, Science and Humanities) to the best research work in Geology (period 2010-12), (ii) the 2012 Extraordinary Doctorate Award of the Faculty of Geology (UB) and (iii) the 1st Honorable mention at the XVIII Prize of the UB Senate of Doctors, which distinguishes PhD dissertations representing the most significant contributions in the field of human knowledge and scientific progress in the UB. In 2016 I started a 2-year post-doctoral research fellowship (H2020 EC Marie S. Curie Fellowship; 195,455 ¿) at the Scott Polar Research Institute of the University of Cambridge (UK), where I studied the distribution and physics of dense shelf water overflows (DWOs) over the world continental slopes. This last skill was fostered during a 6 months stay at the Institut Français de Recherche pour l'Exploitation de la Mer (IFREMER) in Brest (France) in 2017-18. In 2018 I received a postdoc grant from the IAS (International Association of Sedimentologists) to continue my research on the study of DWOs. I have participated in 44 national and international research projects (4 as PI, 2 Spanish and 2 European) and contracts (1 as PI). I am currently PI of a project (280,720 ¿; 2021-2025) funded by the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (Programa Estatal de I+D+i Orientada a los Retos de la Sociedad) to study the impacts of DWOs in the North Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea. I am also PI of an EC H2020 project of the EUROFLEETS+ programme that will fund an oceanographic cruise to study DWOs in the Ross Sea (Antarctica) onboard an Italian icebreaker in winter 2022-23.
I have authored 56 peer-reviewed scientific articles in peer review journals. Main contributions of my research are the knowledge of submarine canyons evolution using field data (e.g. Geology, 2012), numerical models (Journal of Geophysical Research, 2009) and experimental work (Geophysical Research Letters, 2016); the study of the long-term effects of bottom trawling to the seascape over large spatial scales (Nature, 2012); the comprehensive knowledge on the mechanisms for dense shelf water formation in Antarctica and its vulnerability to climate change (Earth Science Reviews, 2018); and the implementation of a high-performance data compression algorithm for multibeam bathymetric and water column data (e.g. IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Applied Earth Observations and Remote Sensing, 2019).
I have done over a hundred contributions to congresses and workshops (6 as invited speaker) and I have delivered invited keynote talks and conferences on submarine landforms, sedimentary and oceanographic processes and seabed morphodynamics in Spain, UK, France, Italy, Colombia, Taiwan, India and Chile. In 2015 I joined the expert committee of the Commission Internationale pour l'Exploration Scientifique de la Méditerranée (CIESM). Since 2017 I am member of the Marine Cartography Working Group of the Catalan Cartographic Coordination Commission (promoted by the Cartographic and Geological Institute of Catalonia). Since 2018 I am member of the Regional Mapping Committee for the Arctic & North Pacific. In 2020-21 I joined the expert panel promoted by the Barcelona City Council on 'The future of the Barcelona beaches under the threat from climate change'.
In 2018 I gained a permanent position as Associate Professor (Professor Agregat) at the University of Barcelona. I teach in several courses (2 as a coordinator) at the degrees of Earth Sciences and Marine Sciences, and in the Master of Oceanography and Marine Environmental Management. From 2007 to 16 and from 2018 until today I have been the responsible for the operational and scientific management of the geophysical equipment of a coastal research vessel (19 m length). I have a vast experience in the organization of outreach activities beyond the academic community. This includes numerous seminars presented to schools and to the general public, the publication of a number of popular science books and articles (38), the contribution in the Wikimedia/Wikipedia movement as a scientific advisor and content creator, and the participation in TV and radio programs.
