CV
Education
Master of Public Policy
Universidad Torcuato Di Tella
Thesis: The Argentine fishing industry and its relationship with climate variability and change, covering environmental, economic and institutional perspectives. Selected among the best final dissertations of 2025.
Ph.D. in Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences
University of Buenos Aires
Thesis: Long-term trends of the sea surface temperature around South America and its ecological impact.
Licenciatura in Physical Oceanography (equivalent to MSc)
University of Buenos Aires
Thesis: Analysis of sea surface temperature trends on the Patagonian shelf based on satellite observations.
Work Experience
Principal Climate Scientist
Suyana – Climate Insurance
- Lead a team of data scientists, setting hazard index design across all parametric products, from trigger definition to threshold calibration and basis risk validation.
- Built a satellite sargassum monitoring system, combining optical and infrared imagery (MODIS, VIIRS, Sentinel-2, Landsat) with deep learning segmentation.
- Forecast sargassum coastal arrival daily in production, driving Lagrangian drift modelling with GLORYS12 currents and scatterometer windage.
- Designed the portfolio construction methodology behind the move to Managing General Agent, benchmarking minimum-variance, semivariance and CVaR optimisation.
- Delivered a multi-hazard climate risk and infrastructure loss assessment for CAF, combining catastrophe modelling (CLIMADA, IBTrACS, physrisk) with ERA5 and CHIRPS hazard layers.
- Cut quotation turnaround from two weeks to one day by building a pricing automation tool in Python, now used across the team.
Senior Climate Scientist
Suyana – Climate Insurance
- Built the first five parametric products end to end (storm surge, heatwaves, cold spells, drought and sea surface temperature anomalies), implemented in Peru, Bolivia, Argentina and Colombia.
- Configured and ran numerical wave and storm surge simulations (SWAN) for 89 ports along 3,000 km of the Peruvian coast, underpinning a parametric trigger based on port closures.
- Co-developed the detection method for a new flood product, training a CNN on MODIS and VIIRS optical and IMERG precipitation with Sentinel-1 SAR-derived labels as supervision.
- Defended model design and assumptions to reinsurers, securing up to USD 5 million in risk capital for the first programme placed.
Senior Data Scientist
Fundar – Foundation for Argentine Development
- Delivered Argendata, the national climate change indicator database, combining ERA5 reanalysis with AVHRR satellite records, now an open public resource.
- Produced a report on the Argentine fishing sector and its exposure to climate variability, linking MODIS sea surface temperature and chlorophyll with CMIP6 projections to 35 years of landings.
- Built two subnational composite indices on gender inequality in work and income and in political representation, published with open source code and data.
- Wrote for national press on climate, fisheries and planetary boundaries, translating technical work for a general audience.
Scientific Advisor
Secretariat of Science, Technology and Innovation, Province of Buenos Aires
- Defined climate and development policy indicators for ORBITA, the province's regional technology and innovation observatory, now a public resource supporting policy design.
- Co-designed FITBA, the provincial technology innovation fund, and evaluated 30 proposals in its first call, scoring technical feasibility and recommending awards.
- Worked with the provincial statistics office to develop and publish gender indicators for the science and technology sector, adding them to official statistics.
PhD Researcher, Climate and Ocean Sciences
CONICET – Argentine National Scientific and Technical Research Council
- Detected and validated long-term regional warming and cooling trends in the South Atlantic using Mann-Kendall testing, spectral analysis and EOF and PCA decomposition, combining AVHRR and OISSTv2 records with reanalysis and in-situ hydrographic data.
- Isolated coupled ocean and atmosphere modes through singular value decomposition, linking observed trends to ENSO and SAM teleconnections.
- Cross-calibrated satellite chlorophyll products (SeaWiFS against MODIS) and validated reanalysis surface winds against in-situ buoy measurements.
- Developed reproducible Python workflows (xarray, Dask, pandas) with shell scripting, version control and parallel processing on remote Linux servers.
- Participated in three oceanographic cruises aboard FS Meteor and RV Puerto Deseado, deploying CTD and uCTD profilers, microstructure probes and Argo floats.
Skills
Python · MATLAB · R · C++ · shell scripting · Git and version control · parallel processing on remote Linux servers
pandas · NumPy · SciPy · scikit-learn · xarray · Dask · Matplotlib · Seaborn · Plotly · Cartopy · deep learning segmentation (U-Net, ResUNet) · CNNs · SVM · random forests · regression · clustering · anomaly detection
MODIS · VIIRS · AVHRR · Sentinel-1 SAR · Sentinel-2 · Landsat · SeaWiFS · OISSTv2 · SeaDAS atmospheric correction · QGIS · ArcGIS · Google Earth Engine · GeoPandas · PySAL
ERA5 · CHIRPS · IMERG · GLORYS12 · CMIP6 · NCEP/NCAR · CFSR · IBTrACS · in-situ hydrographic and buoy data
parametric trigger design · threshold calibration · basis risk validation · catastrophe modelling (CLIMADA, physrisk) · SWAN wave and storm surge modelling · Lagrangian drift modelling · portfolio optimisation (minimum-variance, semivariance, CVaR)
trend detection and Mann-Kendall testing · EOF and PCA decomposition · singular value decomposition · spectral analysis (Welch, multitaper) · composite indicator construction
Publications
Revisiting barrier layers at global scale
Peer-reviewed Articles · In preparation
Thesis · Universidad Torcuato Di Tella - Escuela de Gobierno, Maestría en Políticas Públicas
Institutional Reports · Argendata - Fundar
Gender, Work, and Income Index [Source code]
Open Data & Code · GitHub
Opportunities for the development of the fisheries and aquaculture sector [Data set]
Open Data & Code · GitHub
Aprovechar el viento a favor: oportunidades para el desarrollo del sector pesquero y acuícola
Institutional Reports · Fundar
Límites planetarios, límites humanos
Opinion Articles · elDiarioAR
How do women work in Argentine provinces?
Institutional Reports · Fundar
Pesca del día: merluza regulada
Opinion Articles · elDiarioAR
Opinion Articles · elDiarioAR
Los signos vitales de un planeta en crisis
Opinion Articles · La Nación
Who holds power in Argentine provinces? A Gender, Decision, and Representation Index
Institutional Reports · Fundar
Women in Argentine Science, Technology and Innovation system: a deceiving equality
Peer-reviewed Articles · The Public Sphere Journal at the London School of Economics and Political Science
Interannual Variability and Trends of Sea Surface Temperature Around Southern South America
Peer-reviewed Articles · Frontiers in Marine Science
Physical and Geochemical Changes in the Southwest Atlantic Ocean
Institutional Reports · Ministry of Agriculture
Thesis · Universidad de Buenos Aires - Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales
Analysis of sea surface temperature trends on the Patagonian shelf based on satellite observations
Thesis · University of Buenos Aires - Master in Physical Oceanography
Teaching
Visiting Professor (2023-Present)
School of Government, Universidad Torcuato Di Tella (UTDT)
Teaching Assistant (2022)
School of Government, Universidad Torcuato Di Tella (UTDT)
Head Teaching Assistant (2018-Present)
Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, Faculty of Exact and Natural Sciences, UBA
Teaching Assistant (2016-2017)
Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, Faculty of Exact and Natural Sciences, UBA
Undegraduate Teaching Assistant (2014-2015)
Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, Faculty of Exact and Natural Sciences, UBA
Conferences & Workshops
Coordinator, IFAECI Days
French-Argentine Institute for Climate Studies and its Impacts, Buenos Aires. Coordinated working groups and facilitated dialogue across the institute.
Coordinator, All-Atlantic Data Enterprise 2030 Stakeholders Workshop
Buenos Aires. Contributed to dialogue on Atlantic ocean data infrastructure and data sharing across the scientific community.
National delegate, All-Atlantic Ocean Research Forum ministerial sessions
Washington DC, 2022, and Brussels, 2020, as Argentine representative to the All-Atlantic Ocean Youth Ambassadors Programme.
Penguin exposure to climate change inferred through CMIP6 projections
Oral presentation, British Ornithologists' Union Conference. Lois, N., Risaro, D. B., and Raya Rey, A.
Trends and variability of sea surface temperature in the Argentine Patagonian Shelf
Oral presentation, X Jornadas Nacionales de Ciencias del Mar, Buenos Aires. Risaro, D. B., Chidichimo, M. P., and Piola, A. R.
Strong gradients and currents, mixing, blooms and internal waves in the Brazil-Malvinas confluence and Patagonian shelf break
GEOMAR Summer School, Kiel. Manta, G., Risaro, D. B., Bonelli, G., and Handmann, P.
Service & Leadership
Youth Ambassador, European Union
Argentine representative in the All-Atlantic Ocean Youth Ambassadors programme, promoting sustainable ocean development and stewardship through science diplomacy, community outreach, and policy engagement.