Associate Researchers
Water and extremes | Associate Researchers

Aldunce is an associate professor at the Environmental Sciences and Renewable Natural Resources Department, Universidad de Chile, and holds a PhD in Sociology from University of Melbourne, Australia. Her research focuses on climate change adaptation and resilience, transformation in a changing climate, and natural disasters management. She was a Lead Author of the 5th Assessment Report (AR5) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and, currently, of the forthcoming IPCC report, AR6. Also, Aldunce lead the Scientific Working Group on Adaptation of COP25, event that took place in Madrid, Spain, in december 2019.
Contact: paldunce@uchile.cl
Álvarez is a civil engineer and has a master’s degree in Water Resources and Environment from the University of Chile. She obtained her PhD in engineering from the University of Melbourne, Australia. Her areas of study are surface hydrology, hydrological modeling, data assimilation, remote sensing, and climate change.
Contact: calvarezgarreton@gmail.com
Muñoz is a professor at the Institute of Geography of the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso. He has a Master of Science in Forestry Resources and a PhD in Forestry Sciences from the Universidad Austral de Chile. His research areas are dendrochronology, climate change, forest ecology and pollution studies. Some of his main motivations are to improve the understanding of changes in water availability and air quality associated with global change, along with promoting the development of policies for the informed and sustainable management of natural resources.
Contact: arimunoz82@gmail.com
Zambrano-Bigiarini is a professor in the Department of Civil Works Engineering of the Faculty of Engineering and Sciences of the Universidad de La Frontera. PhD in environmental engineering from the University of Trento, Italy. He completed a postdoc at the Joint Research Center (JRC) of the European Community, focused on the calibration of hydrological models for flood early warning on a pan-European scale. He has developed various packages of the R statistical environment for hydro-meteorological data analysis and global optimization. In CR2 he contributes to the evaluation of the impact of meteorological drought on the availability of water resources in different Andean basins of Chile under the current conditions of climate variability and change.
Contact: mauricio.zambrano@ufrontera.cl
Land use change | Associate Researchers

Galleguillos is a professor at the Faculty of Engineering and Sciences of Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez, Chile. He is an Agricultural Engineer from Universidad de Chile, Master of Sciences, specializing in Ecosystem Functioning from Montpellier SupAGRO, France, and Ph.D in Agronomic Sciences, mention in Continental Waters and Society from the same institution. His research focuses on the use of empirical and mechanistic models and remote sensing tools for the ecosystems study.
Contact: m.galleguillos@uai.cl
González is an associate professor at the Forest Sciences and Natural Resources Faculty, Universidad Austral de Chile. He holds a PhD in Geography from University of Colorado in Boulder, USA. His research focuses on the ecology and dynamics of forests under the influence of natural and anthropogenic disturbances, fire and its ecological role on Chilean native forests, and ecological restoration in Chilean temperate forests.
Contact: maurogonzalez@uach.cl
Resilient cities | Associate Researchers

Biologist from Universidad de Concepción, Chile, and PhD in Biological Sciences from Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. Her research focuses on determining the direction, causes and impacts, on different temporal scales, of hydro-climatic anomalies in Chilean arid zones. Also she’s looking at the sensitivity of the Andes’ indigenous populations to fluctuations in regional bioproductivity over the last 14,000 years.
Contact: emgayo@uc.cl
Assistant Professor at the Geophysics Department, Universidad de Chile. Chemical Engineer and Masters in Geophysics from Universidad de Chile and PhD from Laboratoire d’Optique Atmosphérique, Université de Science et Technologies Lille 1, France. His research focuses on the estimation of global aerosol emissions (natural and anthropogenic) using inverse modelling methods, and the evaluation of numerical models to reproduce the desert dust life cycle.
Contact: nhuneeus@dgf.uchile.cl
Full-time Professor at the Geophysics Department, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. PhD in Climate Physics from Universität Bern, Switzerland. His research focuses on the study of climate variability (annual to centennial timescales) in the Southern Hemisphere using data from ice core, and the spatial and temporal evolution of atmospheric dust concentrations during the last inter-glacial transition.
Contact: lambert@uc.cl
Assistant professor at the Department of Geography, Universidad of Chile. She has a master’s degree in Environmental Management and Planning from the same university, and a PhD in Geography from the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. Her research has focused mainly on the study of climate in urban areas.
Also, she’s a member of the committee of the Master in Geography and coordinator of the postgraduate diploma in Geographic Information Systems, both from Universidad de Chile.
Contact: pamelasmit@uchilefau.cl
Governance and science-policy interface | Associate Researchers

Associate Professor at the Institute of History and Social Sciences, Universidad Austral de Chile, and Associate Researcher of the IDEAL (Dynamics of High Latitude Marine Ecosystems) Center. Master of Arts in Social studies of Science and Technology from Roskilde Universitet, Denmark, and PhD in Sociology from Wageningen University, Netherlands. His research focuses on sociology of climate change, and local responses to climate change policies and processes.
Contact: gblanco@uach.cl
Dr. Ibarra has a Master’s in Social Science Research Methods and a PhD in Science and Technology Policy from the University of Sussex, United Kingdom. Her research work focuses on the role of science in climate governance.
Contact: cecilia.ibarrachile@gmail.com
Maillet is an assistant professor at the Institute of Public Affairs of Universidad de Chile, where he is also the coordinator of the Master in Political Science. He has a research master’s degree in Comparative Politics, Latin American Specialty from Sciences Po, Paris, France, and a doctorate in Political Science from the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile and Sciences Po. His research focuses on the process of public policies that he addresses from theoretical perspectives, such as the political economy and the sociology of public action, applied to the environment, pensions, and transportation.
Contact: antoinemaillet@iap.uchile.cl
Associate Professor at the Faculty of Engineering and Science, and Director of the Center for Energy Innovation, both from Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez, Chile. Master in Industrial Engineering from Universidad de Chile and PhD in Economics from University of California, Berkeley, USA. He served as Programme Officer for Energy and Environment at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). His research focuses on environmental and climate change economics, energy and environment, and socio-environmental conflicts.
Contact: raul.oryan@uai.cl
Assistant Professor at the Psychology Department, Universidad de Chile. Psychologist, and Master in Community Psychology from Universidad de Chile. PhD in Psychological Factors in Environmental Management from University of Queensland, Australia. His research focuses on psychology of climate change, community psychology and social responses to climate change.
Contact: rodolfo.sapiains@gmail.com
Coastal zone | Associate Researchers

Aguirre has a PhD in Engineering Sciences, with a mention in fluid dynamics of the University of Chile. She’s a professor at the Oceanic Engineering School of the University of Valparaíso. Her research areas are ocean-atmosphere interaction, eastern edge dynamics, climate change and wave climate.
Contact: catalina.aguirre@uv.cl
Farías is an associate professor at the Oceanography Department, Universidad de Concepción, Chile. She holds a bachelor’s degree and a in Oceanography at Universidad de Concepción. Her studies are focussed on understanding the biogeochemical processes involved in greenhouse gas cycles (particularly, nitrous oxide).
Farías has built one of the world’s first marine timeseries of nitrous oxide and methane. These results are helping to understand the processes that lead to both monthly and interannual variability of nitrous oxide fluxes, through a coastal marine water interface. Currently, she is the Director of the Isotope Ratio Mass Spectrometry Laboratory at Universidad de Concepción, and Chilean representative on the SOLAS (Surface Ocean Lower Atmosphere Study) international project. She lead the Scientific Working Group on Oceans of COP25, event that took place in Madrid, Spain, in december 2019.
Contact: laura.farias@udec.cl
Assistant Professor at the Geophysics Department, Universidad de Chile. Phd in Atmospheric Sciences from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), USA. His research focuses on climate dynamics, particularly the interactions between clouds, precipitation, water vapour and radiation.
Contact: ronda@dgf.uchile.cl