María Dolores Pérez Hernández

Mª Dolores Pérez Hernández, has been a researcher since October 2019 in the Physical Oceanography Group of the Ocean and Climate Unit at the Institute of Oceanography and Global Change (IOCAG), University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (ULPGC), an Associated ULPGC-CSIC Unit, following nearly five years of research experience abroad.

She holds a B.Sc. in Marine Sciences (2009), an M.Sc. in Oceanography (2011), and a Ph.D. in Physical Oceanography (2015). She completed her doctorate with International Doctorate distinction, summa cum laude, and the Extraordinary Doctoral Thesis Award from ULPGC. During her Ph.D., she completed three research stays of three months each: two in the United States and one in the United Kingdom.

From 2015 to 2018, she was a postdoctoral researcher at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (USA). Between August 2017 and May 2018, she continued part of her postdoctoral research while beginning a position as a scientist at the Marine and Freshwater Research Institute (Iceland). During this period, she also collaborated with the Institute of Marine Research in Bergen, Norway, where she undertook two research visits. In October 2019, she left her scientific position in Iceland to return to Spain, initially under a Viera y Clavijo research contract and subsequently as a Tenured Assistant Professor (Profesor Contratado Doctor) at the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. She also completed a two-week Erasmus+ research stay at Woods Hole.

Awards and Recognition
2019 – EUROGOOS Kostas Nittis Medal for Young Scientists.
2016 – Extraordinary Doctoral Thesis Award.
2015 – Winner of the NASA–MPOWIR Speaker Series.
Three Research Productivity Awards (2023/24–2025/26).
Holder of two six-year research evaluation periods (sexenios).

Teaching
At the time of this application, Dr. Pérez Hernández had delivered a total of 893 teaching hours over eight academic years, including 60 hours at the Master's level and 130 hours in Doctoral programmes. Her teaching performance has received positive evaluations through the DOCENTIA programme. She has taught a wide range of undergraduate and postgraduate courses in the field of Applied Physics, delivering lectures, practical sessions, and laboratory classes across several Engineering degrees, Marine Sciences undergraduate and Master's programmes, and Doctoral School courses. She also participates in the CHALLENGINE Teaching Innovation Project.

Research
Dr. Pérez Hernández has authored 33 peer-reviewed articles in indexed scientific journals, including:
1 paper in Nature Geoscience;
32 papers in first-quartile (Q1) journals and 1 in a second-quartile (Q2) journal;
8 papers as first author;
5 interdisciplinary publications.
She is also the author of two book chapters, two oceanographic cruise report chapters, one environmental report, and the editor of two conference abstract books.

She serves as Principal Investigator of one national research project and one Spain–Germany bilateral project (PCI). She has participated in 11 research projects (1 European, 4 Spanish national projects, 4 national projects led by non-Spanish institutions, and 2 regional projects), presented her work at more than 20 international conferences, and taken part in 19 oceanographic research cruises, with her first cruise as Chief Scientist scheduled for July 2026.

She has supervised three Ph.D. theses (all awarded cum laude with International Doctorate distinction), 13 undergraduate and Master's final projects (including 8 Master's theses), as well as one doctoral research stay and one Erasmus Master's student undertaking their Master's thesis research.