Ruby Vallarino-Castillo

I am a Panamanian researcher, a graduate of the Universidad Tecnológica de Panamá (UTP) with a Bachelor's degree in Maritime and Port Engineering (2020). I completed my Master's degree in Civil Engineering Systems with a specialization in Hydraulics, Energy and the Environment at the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM, 2022), and I am currently a PhD candidate at UPM (since 2022) with a focus on coastal engineering, specifically on coastal erosion and its relationship with large-scale and regional climate phenomena. I have completed academic research stays at TU Delft (2024) and the University of Cantabria (2025), where I worked on numerical wave propagation models and statistical data analysis to evaluate trends and the influence of climate forcings on wave behaviour.
My research interests are driven by the study of coastal risks derived from climate change, which have had a particularly negative impact on Latin America, a region whose principal assets include coastal ecosystems of high touristic, socioeconomic and ecological value. Since the impacts of coastal erosion have intensified in recent years as a result of climate change, the variability of extreme phenomena such as ENSO, and shifts in regional climate patterns, my work focuses on understanding how this set of variables influences the wave dynamics that drive seasonal and interannual beach morphodynamics. My principal study area is the Gulf of Panama, on the Pacific coast of Panama, a region widely recognized for its ecological importance to aquatic species within the Eastern Tropical Pacific.

Before pursuing graduate studies in Europe, I held academic and research-oriented positions at the Universidad Tecnológica de Panamá, where I trained as an academic and research assistant and later served as Instructor A-3, teaching courses to different engineering cohorts. I also collaborated with the GIGA-UTP research group, focused on applied geotechnical sciences. During this period, I supervised students participating in UTP's Jornada de Iniciación Científica (JIC-UTP), mentoring research projects on shoreline change, urban flooding, bioremediation and sediment retention by vegetation. One of these projects, on the potential for offshore wind energy in Panama, was selected to represent UTP at the National Scientific Initiation Conference of Panama (JIC-Nacional Panama).

My doctoral research at the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid investigates how large-scale and regional climate forcings reshape coastal environments through their influence on wave dynamics and shoreline evolution. The work integrates three complementary approaches. First, numerical modelling of offshore and nearshore wave propagation to characterize how regional climate variability is transferred to the coastal zone. Second, satellite remote sensing of historical shoreline change combining Landsat and Sentinel time series with cloud-based processing on Google Earth Engine, Python-based geospatial analysis, GIS tools such as ArcGIS and QGIS, and the Digital Shoreline Analysis System (DSAS) for trend assessment. Third, statistical and probabilistic analysis of erosion and flooding scenarios under climate variability and projected change. The Gulf of Panama serves as my primary case study, where I examine how phenomena such as ENSO, intertropical convergence shifts, and regional storm patterns translate into measurable changes along the Panamanian Pacific coast. Building on this research, I serve as Principal Investigator of the SENACYT-funded project "Explorando la evolución de nuestras costas: estudio de la erosión costera y su impacto en las comunidades locales, frente a horizontes de emergencia climática" (Grant APY-NI-2024A-02), under SENACYT's New Investigators program, designed to generate scientific evidence for Panama.

My research is embedded within several international scientific networks. I was selected as an Expert Reviewer for the IPCC Seventh Assessment Report, Working Group I First Order Draft, through the Early Career Researcher Group Review initiative, chosen among more than 1,400 applicants worldwide. I am also an associate researcher at COIBA AIP, one of Panama's strategic research centres on marine and coastal biodiversity supported by SENACYT. To date, I have authored four first-author peer-reviewed publications on coastal erosion, wave dynamics and shoreline change in the Latin American context, published in Journal of Marine Science and Engineering (2022, 2024), Frontiers in Environmental Science (2023) and Climate Dynamics (2025), with additional manuscripts currently under review or in preparation (2026-2027). I also serve as a peer reviewer for several international journals: Journal of Coastal Conservation, Discover Sustainability, Discover Geoscience, Earth Science Informatics and GeoJournal (Springer); Geomorphology (Elsevier); Journal of Marine Science and Engineering (MDPI); and Frontiers in Marine Science (Frontiers).

Through the path I am building, I seek to empower young researchers in ocean sciences, recognizing that the ocean is one of the fundamental systems sustaining humanity. For Latin American society, the ocean also holds deep cultural significance, alongside its ecosystemic and personal value for every inhabitant of the region. Although ocean and coastal sciences have advanced rapidly in recent years, they still require greater momentum from the new generations of Latin American researchers. I firmly believe this can be achieved by strengthening local science and fostering collaboration with leading academic institutions worldwide, identifying priority research questions for the region, and ensuring that scientific outputs reach the national policies and plans that protect our beaches and coastal communities. A central pillar of my mission is to inspire young women with a strong interest in the coastal and marine environment to develop research lines that respond to the region's most urgent needs, and to keep aspiring, knowing that their voices and contributions are essential to shaping a more resilient, equitable, and scientifically empowered future for Latin America and the Global South.

ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Ruby-Vallarino-Castillo?ev=hdr_xprf
Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=es&user=KAadRpkAAAAJ
Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/ruby-vallarino-88251b17a