Function and Responsibilities:

Postdoctoral researcher since 2023. 

Current responsibilities are related to multi-hazard risk assessment, exposure modeling, dynamic vulnerabilities (physical, systemic, and social), and risk communication for practical applications. Thereby, stakeholders and other scientists from several institutions in South America and Europe have contributed to these cross-disciplinary research activities.

These activities started in 2018 at the GFZ Section 2.6. - "Seismic Hazard and Risk Dynamics", and are part of the long-term strategy of the GFZ to bridge the gap between theoretical models, real applications, dissemination, and transferability.

Research Interests:

• Exposure models (buildings, population) for multi-hazard risk assessment, accounting for dynamic vulnerabilities resulting from individual, cascading, and compound hazards.
• Catastrophe modeling to estimate economic losses, casualties, and disconnectivity, while proposing meaningful uncertainty visualization techniques.
• Geotechnical Earthquake Engineering (nNon-linear site response); spatially correlated seismic ground motions models and their impact on seismic risk.

Career:

• Postgraduate researcher at the GFZ: Since June 2018. 
• Teaching assistant (T.A) of Engineering Seismology and Seismic Hazard Analysis. IUSS (Pavia, Italy) March 2018.
• Geological Engineer. CORANTIOQUIA, Medellin, Colombia) Sept. 2015 - Aug. 2016.
• Geological Engineer. Integral S.A, Medellin, Colombia) Sept. 2014 - Aug. 2015.
• Geological Engineer. Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Medellin campus, Dec. 2013- Aug. 2014) for the Colombian Geological Survey.
• Teaching assistant (T.A). National University of Colombia- Medellín campus. 2012.

Education:

• 2019 - 2022: Ph.D. (Doctoral degree in "Georisks"), University of Potsdam, Germany. Defense in January 2023.
• 2017 - 2018: MSc. in Engineering Seismology, IUSS- MEEES program (Pavia, Italy)
  
• 2016 - 2017: MSc. Sciences de la Terre et des Planètes, Environnement. Université Grenoble Alpes- MEEES program (Grenoble, France)
• 2015 - 2016: Postgraduate in Geotechnics, Universidad de Medellín (Colombia)
• 2009 - 2013: Geological Engineer, Universidad Nacional de Colombia (Medellin campus)

Projects:

• CASCO project. To develop new integrated methods and models for multi-hazard risk assessment of coastal urban areas, subject to extreme geophysical (i.e. earthquake, tsunami) and climatic events (heatwaves, extreme rain fall).
• 'RIESGOS project' (Fase 1 & 2). 'Multi-Risk Information SystEm for South America’s Andes ReGiOnS' (GFZ, Germany, 2018- 2024) Seismic Hazard, Building exposure, and dynamic physical vulnerabilities under the action of different hazards (seismic, tsunami, lahar, ash-falls, floods)
• LiqueFact project (EUCENTRE, Pavia, Italy). Research Internship: Assessment of Earthquake-Induced Risk Of Soil Liquefaction Using CPT- Based Methods: Application to The case study of Cavezzo Municipality (Italy).
• STREST project (IsTerre, Grenobe, France). Master Thesis: Site-Specific Probabilistic Seismic Hazard Analysis with Non-Linear Site Response: Comparison of Different Approaches, the Euroseistest, Greece study case.
  
• Hidroituango project.Advisor during the construction of tunnels and slope stability in the field. (Antioquia, Colombia, Sept. 2014 - Aug. 2015)
• Colombian National Map of Mass Movement Hazard. Scale 1: 100.000. For the Colombian Geological Survey (Dec. 2013- August 2014)

Awards:

• Mention "magna cum laude", Ph.D. (Universität Potsdam, Germany)
• Mention "Bien" M.Sc. Seismology (Université Grenoble Alpes, France)
• Scholarship: ERASMUS MUNDUS. European Commission, for Master's studies in Europe.
• Lorenzo Codazzi Award from the Colombian Society of Engineers for the project "Colombian National Map of Hazard due to Mass Movements Scale 1: 100,000". Participation in the National Convention of Colombia- Colombian Geological Service (Dec. 2013- August 2014) 
• Best marks on the SABER-Pro test, program: Geological Engineering at national level (2013-01) (Test for the quality of high-level education in Colombia)
• Scholarship: academic excellence PAES for higher education (2008-2013, Universidad Nacional de Colombia Medellín campus)