Sonia Ponce de León Álvarez

Sonia Ponce de Leon Alvarez graduated with a Degree in Oceanographic Engineering in 1986 at the Institute of Hydrometeorology of Odessa (Russia). After that she worked for four years at the Academy of Sciences of Cuba on the subject of wind waves. She then began her Master of Sciences studies at CICESE, Baja California (Mexico), where she was awarded the MSc degree in Physical Oceanography in 1995. She completed her PhD degree in 2008, in Lisbon, at CENTEC, Instituto Superior Tecnico. She published 16 papers in peer reviewed journals with an accumulated impact factor of 5 and with 100 citations. Of the 16 papers, 8 were published independently of the PhD supervisor and 6 were published as a senior (corresponding) author. She was the first author in 14 papers and 8 papers were published in high impact factor journals in the area of Physical Oceanography. Of these papers, five were on the subject of rogue waves. Dr Sonia Ponce de León is presently a postdoctoral scientist at the University College Dublin (UCD), School of Mathematics and UCD Earth Institute. Her research interests are rogue waves. She started researching on rogue waves in 2012 when she worked as a post-doc at the University of Lisbon, at CENTEC from the Portuguese foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) to examine extreme North Atlantic storms under which rogue waves are known to occur. Her current research at the UCD School of Mathematical Sciences is devoted to rare cases of a rogue wave that was actually measured in the North Sea by a wave buoy. She is studying how it was generated and its characteristics, using numerical simulations, wave radars, wave buoys and satellites. The probability that a rogue wave will occur depends on the properties of the waves that are present in a given location at a given time. These properties can be simulated by spectral computer models that allow scientists to predict the sea state in the future. But also in the past, so she use these type of models to see what the sea conditions were when the rogue wave occurred. By understanding how these conditions come up and promote the appearance of a rogue wave, we can use spectral models to forecast when and where these conditions will take place again and if a rogue wave is likely or not to happen. This capability will increase the safety of ships and offshore structures by improving the quality of the forecast of extreme and dangerous sea states.She also researched on many other subjects related to wind waves such as regional phenomena in enclosed and semi enclosed seas as well as ocean Most of her work has focused on the application of spectral wave models such as WAVEWATCH III, WAM and SWAN, analysis and development with an emphasis on the development of the operational wave forecast in Spain (for SOCIB (Coastal Ocean Observing and Forecasting System) http://www.socib.es/sapo2/d.sapo/sapo.html for the Catalan Met Office (METEOCAT) at http://www.meteo.cat/prediccio/models/wamShe supervised two students at UCD Research Projects 2015, School of Mathematical Sciences (June-August 2015) on the subject of Extreme events around Ireland/North Sea and she is supervising one MSc of Science at COPPE, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. On the last 10 years she was reviewer for the following journals: Journal of Geophysical Research; Continental Shelf Research; Ocean Engineering, Applied Energy,Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science; Journal of Zhejiang University-SCIENCE A; Journal of Coastal Research; ICE, Journal - Maritime Engineering.