Marta Ruiz Colmenero

Marta Ruiz Colmenero, specialist researcher of the “Sustainability in Biosystems” Group at IRTA since 2020, where I have specialized in the application of the Life Cycle Analysis environmental quantification methodology, in the agri-food sector.

After finishing my degree in Environmental Sciences, in 2012 I presented my thesis entitled “Influence of the use of plant covers in sloping vineyards for erosion control” by the Department of Geography and Geology of the University of Alcalá (Madrid). During the 4 years of developing my thesis in the Soil and Water Conservation Group of the IMIDRA Research Institute (Alcalá de Henares) I participated in a total of 4 projects investigating the response of the physicochemical and hydrological properties of the soil to changes in the agricultural management of woody crops. I did several research stays collaborating with leading research groups in the field of soil degradation, including a stay at the Department of Biological Engineering and Agriculture at the University of Davis, California. After finishing my thesis, I got a postdoctoral fellowship funded by a COST action for a collaboration in the School of Biological Sciences, Earth and Environment (BEES) of the University of New South Wales (Australia). Consecutively I worked as a researcher at this same university for a project of the Government Agency for the Environment. I then worked for 5 years with the environmental consultancy Greencollar (Sydney, Australia) collaborating on projects related to the government initiative for carbon credits in livestock. My publication history includes more than 10 journal articles, which have been cited 749 times in total (h-index: 9). I have also participated in three book chapters, and in more than thirty national and international conference proceedings.

Throughout this time, I have gained extensive experience working both in research and in the private sector, always in the field related to the improvement of agricultural and livestock systems from an environmental point of view.