Dr. Isidoro Gutierrez-Alvarez | Hematological Disorders | Best Researcher Award

I began my research career with an internship at the Atmospheric Sounding Station (ESAt) in El Arenosillo, Mazagón (Huelva), part of the National Institute of Aerospace Technology (INTA). During this stay, I applied my programming knowledge to extract meteorological information from NASA’s MERRA-2 model and became familiar with the “Weather Research and Forecasting” (WRF) atmospheric simulation model, widely used for high-resolution atmospheric simulations. This contact with INTA has been maintained throughout my research career, conducting joint studies between the University of Huelva and INTA. 🌦️🌐

Later, I expanded these capabilities with the use of Lagrangian atmospheric dispersion models such as HYSPLIT and FLEXPART, which I used to study in detail the behavior of radon around the city of Huelva. Thanks to these models, we were able to simulate the transport behavior of radon from the phosphogypsum ponds to the city of Huelva, identifying that breeze events allowed the recirculation of air masses and their gradual enrichment in radon. These studies were published in two research articles in first-quartile journals. 🌬️🔍

During my Ph.D., I not only studied atmospheric radon but also the radon exhalation rates from the phosphogypsum repository. During this stage, I designed and built two reference soils for measuring exhalation rates, which are used to calibrate and verify the correct functioning of radon measuring equipment, especially those focused on radon exhalation. These reference soils demonstrated that it is necessary to insert the accumulation chamber a few centimeters when measuring exhalations to avoid significant leaks through the exhalation material itself. This research resulted in two articles, one of which was published in a first-decile journal. 🌱📊

Additionally, due to my knowledge of data analysis and programming, I have closely collaborated on other projects carried out by the FRYMA research group. Notably, I actively participated in obtaining and analyzing results in the works of Dr. Guerrero Márquez. 🤝💻

So far, I have supervised three undergraduate theses (TFG) and two master’s theses (TFM), and another two are expected to be defended in September 2023, totaling seven TFG/TFM. Moreover, I am co-director of a doctoral thesis titled “Development and improvement of techniques to characterize the properties of 222Rn in materials and construction systems; modeling the behavior of 222Rn inside homes,” where I play a major role in the academic supervision due to my familiarity with the subject. 📜🏠