Dr. Arias is an Associate Professor of Water Resources at the University of South Florida (Tampa, USA), where he leads the Watershed Sustainability Lab. His research adopts an interdisciplinary approach to address regional water management challenges. By employing computer modeling and field experiments, he explores how the interaction between climate and infrastructure impacts aquatic ecosystems. Dr. Arias' research has contributed essential scientific insights for the management of natural resources in globally significant watersheds, including the Mekong River in Southeast Asia, the Amazon River in South America, and the Everglades in the USA. Dr. Arias joined USF in 2016, following the completion of a Postdoc in Sustainability Science at Harvard University. He holds bachelors and masters degrees in environmental engineering sciences from the University of Florida, and a PhD from the University of Canterbury (New Zealand). He has authored 65 peer-reviewed articles in prestigious journals such as Science, Nature Sustainability, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, and Environmental Research Letters. Dr. Arias has served as the Principal or Co-Principal Investigator in 16 research projects, securing a total of US $6.8 million in funding. He has been the senior mentor for 18 graduate students, 10 of them from underrepresented groups in science. In 2024, he became Vice President of the American Ecological Engineering Society, and will become the organization's President in 2025.