Maite Martinez Aldaya

Biography

I am a senior researcher on multidisciplinary water management both at the Technical University of Madrid (Spain) and at the University of Twente (The Netherlands), where I am doing research on the water footprint together with Professor Hoekstra, inventor of this concept. In addition, I am a member of the Spanish Water Observatory and collaborate with the Spanish Royal Academy of Sciences, which, as a young scientist, I represented at the Young Leaders Meeting of the World Economic Forum in Dalian in September 2009.Previously, I undertook the first water footprint analysis of a catchment that incorporates both hydrologic and economic aspects within the NeWater Project, which was funded by the European Union. I also gained a broad understanding of both European and International environmental and agricultural policies working at the Agriculture and Soil Unit at the European Commission and the Land and Water Development Division at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.Besides this wide-ranging professional experience, I have a multidisciplinary academic background. I graduated in Biology and obtained a European PhD in Ecology from the University of Navarre, Spain. Shortly after, and in order to complement the science with a socio-economic perspective, I took an MSc Environmental Policy and Regulation at the London School of Economics.