Ricardo holds a bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering from Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala. He began his professional career in the field of water supply and hydraulic engineering. His initial experiences strongly influenced his interest in water resources management. This led him to pursue higher education abroad. He obtained a MSc. degree in Water Science and Engineering under the prestigious Erasmus+ Joint Master’s Degree Programme coordinated between (1) IHE Delft – Institute for Water Education, The Netherlands (2) Technische Universität Dresden, Germany and (3) Instituto Superior Técnico, Portugal. His graduate research project focused on estimating surface water – groundwater interactions subjected to agricultural anthropogenic influences in a south sub-cone basin in Central America.

During his graduate program, he also participated in the ENERAG – International Problem Solver Competition – Excellency Network Building for Comprehensive Research and Assessment of Geofluids held by JET-EHC, Budapest, Hungary and his team won the global competition. The awarding research topic focused on coordinated management and sustainability of land use and agriculture.

Ricardo’s primary interests revolve around investigating interactions of the hydrological cycle with other components, such as land-use, climate variables and hydro-chemical processes in context of water demand and sectoral water use. He aims to learn and contribute within the inventWater project through modelling and developing forecasting tools related to water availability and water quality issues to protect water supply systems and dependent ecosystems under present and future scenarios.