Lina Mercedes
Rodríguez Castillo

Multilayer perceptron model for predicting conservative solute transport in streams and rivers

Rodríguez, L., Estrada, T., Tartakovsky, A., Carroll, K. C., Ginn, T., & González-Pinzón, R. (2026). Environmental Modelling & Software, 107011.

Propagation of nutrients and metals after the 2022 Hermit’s Peak-Calf Canyon gigafire

Kaphle, A., Rodríguez, L., Tunby, P., Nichols, J., Khandelwal, A., Joseph, E., et al. (2025). Frontiers in Water, 7.

TIERRAS — Tracer Injection Experiments in RiveRs And Streams (2.0)

Rodríguez, L., Aghababaei, M., Tunby, P., Abusang, A., Tartakovsky, A., Carroll, K., Ginn, T., & González-Pinzón, R. (2025). Zenodo. Access dataset.

Longitudinal propagation of aquatic disturbances following the largest wildfire recorded in New Mexico, USA

Nichols, J., Joseph, E., Kaphle, A., Tunby, P., Rodríguez, L., Khandelwal, A., et al. (2024). Nature Communications, 15, 7143.

Data archive: Longitudinal propagation of aquatic disturbances following the largest wildfire recorded in New Mexico, USA (v1.0.1)

Nichols, J., Joseph, E., Kaphle, A., Tunby, P., Rodríguez, L., Khandelwal, A., Reale, J., Regier, P., Van Horn, D., & González-Pinzón, R. (2024). Zenodo. Access dataset.

Water Engineer Intern · HDR Engineering

Albuquerque, New Mexico · May 2026–Present

• Perform hydrologic, hydraulic, and water systems analyses for floodplains, drainage infrastructure, and water resources projects using Civil 3D, ArcGIS, HEC-RAS, HEC-HMS, and InfoWater.
• Support engineering evaluations through technical calculations, field reconnaissance, data collection, infrastructure modeling, technical writing, engineering reports, and cost estimates.
• Analyze environmental and infrastructure datasets for asset management and alternatives studies, including applications of machine learning to water resources and environmental modeling.

Research Assistant · Center for Water and the Environment, UNM

Albuquerque, New Mexico · Research projects since May 2023

Treated wastewater and the ecological sustainability of arid rivers · NSF #2514528 · August 2025

• Install, calibrate, and maintain EXO multiparameter sensors in the Rio Grande to collect water-quality time series for stream metabolism and dynamic resilience modeling.
• Evaluate wastewater effluent impacts on water quality and stream metabolism through machine learning and large datasets.
• Explore treated wastewater as a strategy for mitigating water scarcity in arid river systems.

River corridor transport modeling with community data and physics-aware machine learning · NSF #2142691 · January 2024

• Unified solute transport data from more than 450 experiments in more than 50 rivers worldwide, extracting information from the literature and standardizing formats.
• Developed TIERRAS, a platform to search, download, and contribute tracer experiments.
• Designed and validated a Python machine learning framework to predict watershed responses to disturbances across sites and hydrologic conditions, including chemical spills, oil contamination, wildfires, and other disturbances.
• Contributed research published in Environmental Modelling & Software.

Downstream propagation of wildfire disturbances in fluvial networks · NSF #2054444 · May 2023

• Conducted fieldwork and laboratory analysis, recalibrated EXO sensors, and analyzed water samples for nutrient and metal concentrations.
• Analyzed data using ArcGIS, MATLAB, R, HEC-HMS, and Aquarius.
• Developed Python and MATLAB machine learning models to predict water-quality parameters.
• Contributed to publications in Nature Communications and Frontiers in Water.

Research Assistant · National University of Colombia

Hidroituango Project, Colombia · January–December 2022

• Assessed environmental and hydrologic impacts through fieldwork and remote sensing, including forest disturbance, sediment transport, soil fertility, aquatic ecosystems, and dam stability monitoring.
• Collected and analyzed water resources data using Excel, QGIS, and ArcGIS.
• Reviewed environmental regulations and prepared technical reports for EPM, incorporating community impact assessments and proposing environmental compliance strategies.

PhD in Civil Engineering · PhD Candidate

University of New Mexico, Albuquerque · Spring 2025–Summer 2027 (expected)

Master of Engineering in Civil Engineering

University of New Mexico, Albuquerque · Spring 2024–Spring 2025

Geological Engineering

National University of Colombia, Medellín · Spring 2018–Fall 2023

• 2026 · Speaker and Best Oral Presentation: Rocky Mountain Water Environment Association Student Conference, Albuquerque, NM.
• 2026 · Speaker: AI for Earth Sciences Workshop, Santa Fe, NM.
• 2026 · Attendee: New Mexico Water Summit (RMSAWWA), Albuquerque, NM.
• 2025 · Speaker: Machine Learning Applications to Solute Transport and Other Hydrologic Processes Workshop, Albuquerque, NM.
• 2025 · Speaker: Graduate Seminar, Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering Department, UNM. Invited talk and hands-on workshop on machine learning in environmental and civil engineering research.
• 2025 · Speaker: NM Water Data Initiative Workshop, Albuquerque, NM.
• 2024 · Poster presenter: 69th Annual New Mexico Water Conference, Pojoaque, NM.
• 2022 · Attendee: AAPG International Conference and Exhibition, Cartagena, Colombia.
• 2022 · Attendee: National Mining Congress, Cartagena, Colombia.

Coauthored conference contributions

• EGU 2025: Longitudinal propagation of aquatic disturbances following the largest wildfire recorded in New Mexico, USA. González-Pinzón, R., Nichols, J., Joseph, E., Kaphle, A., Tunby, P., Rodriguez, L., Khandelwal, A., Reale, J., Regier, P., & Van Horn, D.
• AGU 2025: Propagation of Nutrients and Metals After the 2022 Hermit’s Peak Calf Canyon Gigafire. González-Pinzón, R., Tunby, P., Kaphle, A., Rodriguez, L., Nichols, J., Khandelwal, A., Joseph, E., Aldred, J., & Van Horn, D.

• 2026: Best Oral Presentation, Rocky Mountain Water Environment Association Student Conference.
• Spring 2026: Third Place, Lobo Hackathon, Lobo Rainforest Innovations. Enviro-GPT: AI agent for environmental data and solutions.
• Summer 2025: UNM media recognition for the development of an open-access tracer data platform.
• Fall 2025: Elvidio Diniz Award, American Society of Civil Engineers.
• Fall 2025: Martha J. and William Benton Endowed Scholarship, UNM.
• 2025: Perfect Pitch winner, Center for Water and the Environment, UNM.
• Spring 2023: Ronald G. Boyd Memorial Endowment in Mineralogy Scholarship, UNM.
• 2018–2023: College Tennis Athletic Scholarship, National University of Colombia, Medellín.

• Journal co-reviewer · Fall 2025: Water Resources Research (AGU), “Source tracing for pollutants in river channels based on a physics-informed neural network.”
• Workshop organizer · 2025: Machine Learning Applications to Solute Transport and Other Hydrologic Processes, Albuquerque, NM. NSF-funded, EAR #2142691.

Technical skills

Programming and data: Python, MATLAB, R, Excel, machine learning, environmental data analysis.

Geospatial and remote sensing: ArcGIS, QGIS, ENVI.

Engineering and monitoring: AutoCAD, Civil 3D, HEC-HMS, HEC-RAS, InfoWater, Aquarius, EXO multiparameter sensors.

Certifications

• Introduction to Machine Learning · Duke University, Coursera · 2025
• Fundamentals of Remote Sensing · NASA · 2025

Languages

Spanish (native) · English (C2) · German (B1)