Dr Irene Benito Lazaro

Irene’s role entails developing, simulating and validating coastal flood models with the aim of producing high-resolution global flood risk assessments. This involves simulating coastal boundary conditions such as storm surges and waves and using those as input to model coastal flooding.

Before joining Fathom, Irene studied for a PhD at the Institute for Environmental Studies (IVM) at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam in the Netherlands. Her PhD research was on coastal flood modeling at large-scale, using hydrodynamic offshore and coastal flood models. Irene also has a Master’s from the Delft University of Technology in Civil Engineering, specializing in hydrology.

Before her PhD Irene worked for two years at the Deltares Research Institute in Delft, the Netherlands, focusing on developing flood early warning systems and using remote sensing to detect flooding.

Outside work, Irene enjoys trips back home to Spain and enjoys spending time outdoors, either running, hiking or traveling.