ALEJANDRO
GÓMEZ PAZO

I am an early-career researcher (PhD 2022). After my degree in Geography and management planning (USC), in 2015, I did a master's in GIS and remote sensing (UAH) and worked as a researcher at the CSIC for 6 months. My predoctoral contract, funded by an FPU grant (Spanish government), started in Sep’17, and my Ph.D. project focused on using new technologies (RFID and UAVs) to understand the coastal zones' behavior in the global change context. I am doing three short stays (~10 months) in international universities and research centers (ISEP, University of Glasgow, and British Geological Survey) during this period. In Feb’22, I defended my thesis, and in Sep’22, I started as a postdoctoral researcher at the Dept. of Geography of the USC with a Galician government contract and a granted Fulbright research stay. In Oct’23, I changed my position for a more stable contract as a Lecturer in the Dept. of Geography and Geology of the University of Leon. In my research career, I have published 16 peer-reviewed papers (Scopus, 12-01-2024), mainly in top journals on geomorphology and marine processes, 4 book chapters, 18 conference abstracts, and coordinated 1 book and 3 Special issues in journals. All these research outputs have been carried out parallel to my teaching activities. Also, I participated in the organization committee of 2 national conferences, co-guide the 10th IAG International Conference on Geomorphology field trip, and am a member of the scientific committee of 3 national conferences. I am a reviewer of > 10 SCI journals. I have been fully committed to promoting outreach activities to disseminate our scientific findings to society (YouTube videos, talks at scientific events, mass media, and monologue contests). During my career, I have received various awards concerning my scientific work, highlighting the award “Jesús García Fernández” for best research of young geographers conceded by the AGE and the award “María Jesús Ibañez” for the best thesis in geomorphology and quaternary studies conceded by AQUA and the SEG. My research interests include using new technologies to understand the geomorphological processes in different environments (coastal and mountain areas), improving the knowledge about their recent evolution, and increasing the quality of the management plans and the paleoclimate analysis. I worked with multiple devices to understand the behavior of coastal areas, lagoon variations, and glacial distribution. Still, two main elements were the UAVs to obtain detailed models and estimate the variations and the RFID sensors to identify rocks or other elements and check their displacements during extensive periods. All these elements are very interesting to the analysis of the variations in the polar regions, allow us a better understanding of the minimum variations with a better spatial and temporal resolution, and reduce the uncertainties associated with other technologies such as satellite images. For the moment, I participated in three projects funded by public and private associations, highlighting the PARANTAR project. I have carried out 1 field season in Antarctica (2024), applying the new technologies in the study of the deglaciation process and the geomorphological response, and 2 fieldwork surveys (2022 and 2023) in the Azores Islands to identify the patterns of the marine storms in the boulder variations. During my predoctoral stays, I worked on introducing open-source tools to estimate the variations in coastal areas automatically; this project was derived from various research papers, conference presentations, and my participation during my stay on a European Space Agency (ESA) project. In the last year, I focused my research on ancient glacial landforms and the estimation of the paleoglacial distribution and extension in the Galician mountains.