Mariana Bruning-González
About me
I am a Chilean researcher at the Institute of Ecology and Biodiversity (IEB), with a PhD in Ecology and Evolution and a background in Chemical Engineering. My work links urban metabolism, production systems and ecology to understand sustainability local scale. I also lecture on sustainability at Engineering School from Universidad de Chile and I am passionate about teaching. My other interests include socioeconomic and gender inequality, and biodiversity conservation.
I am a Chilean researcher at the Institute of Ecology and Biodiversity (IEB). I hold a PhD in Ecology and Evolution from Universidad Austral de Chile, where I completed my doctoral thesis about urban metabolism. I trained first as a Chemical Engineer and hold a Master's in Chemical Engineering at Universidad de Chile. This background lets me bring together production processes, material and energy flows, and ecology.
In my doctoral thesis I used urban metabolism as an ecological framework to evaluate urban sustainability, analyzing how water consumption scales across Chilean municipalities. Part of this work is published in Water Resources Management (2026). I have also published a study on biodiversity and urban resilience to tsunamis in Sustainability (2023).
I am currently developing a research line on industrial development and socio-ecological sustainability at the municipal scale. I combine official data sources, remote sensing and spatial analysis to improve the information available for territorial planning.
My expertise includes global change, environmental impacts, carbon footprint and circular economy. I have been involved in organizations working on waste, food loss and biodiversity conservation. I serve on thesis committees as part of my work training students and I work as coordinator and lecturer of a course on sustainability at University of Chile.
