Francisco J. Peñas holds a PhD in Coastal Engineering, Hydrobiology and Management of
Aquatic Systems from the University of Cantabria (2014) and a MSc in Integrated Management
of Aquatic Systems (2008). Francisco has had a postdoctoral position at the IHCantabria and
was granted a two-year postdoctoral fellowship by the national fund for the scientific and
technological development of the Chilean Government during 2017-2019.
His research focuses on the fields of hydroecology, impacts of flow alteration, environmental
hydraulics and integrated catchment management. He has also participated in projects
covering topics related with the conservation and management of aquatic systems, assessment
of ecosystem services and environmental flows. He is very interested in developing tools to
transfer the scientific knowledge to common practices in the management of water resources.
The central theme of his PhD was the analysis of the larger scale spatial patterns of the
natural flow regime, from a hydroecological perspective, and the assessment of the hydrological
alteration. In his subsequent research, Francisco focuses on how streamflow interacts with
ecosystem function and how the hydrological alteration modifies it and produces loss of
ecosystems services. In this regard, he has been and currently is IP of several research proyects within this knoledge field, financed under different natrional and interntional resrach programs. In addition,
Francisco is currently supervising 2 PhD theses framed within the EURO-Flow project, a ITN
financed by the UE. Both PhD are focused in researching the influence of natural and altered
streamflow in the biological communities and the ecosystem functional response at different
spatial scales.
The result of this scientific activity can be summarized in the publication of 20 SCI papers
(10 Q1, 8 first author; H-Index = 9), 2 book chapters and over 30 presentations in national
and international congress. In 2014 he was awarded the Outstanding Paper Award granted by
the Water and Environmental Journal In addition, as a result of his pre and postdoc activity.
The researcher has participated in numerous competitive national and international research
projects and in contracts with the administration or companies. He is a member of the Iberian
Limnological Association. His teaching experience includes lecturing under- and postgraduates
at the Faculty of Engineering of the UCSC during the academic years 2017 and 2018 and
has collaborated in several courses within the postgraduate program of the IHCantabria at the
University of Cantabria. He has supervised 2 final year projects, 4 master thesis and is currently
supervising 2 PhD theses.
