Romualdo Romero March

The 2004 Plinius Medal is awarded to Romualdo Romero March for his achievements in improving our knowledge and forecasting of natural hazards induced by severe weather.

Romualdo Romero was born in 1970 in Palma de Mallorca, Spain. After studying Physics in the University of Balearic Islands he obtained the Extraordinary Award of this University for his memory of Ph.D. “Numerical simulation of mesoscale processes in the Western Mediterranean: Environmental impact and natural hazards”. He collaborated in different research projects in the FISBAT-CNR (Bologna, Italy) and the University of Wales (Lampeter, UK) and he was recognised as European Doctor in 1999. After working in the NOAA/National Severe Storms Laboratory (Oklahoma, USA), granted by the National Resarch Council (USA) and for the OTAN and CIMMS (Oklahoma University), nowadays he is lecturer at the University of Balearic Islands. As student advisor he is directing 4 Ph.D. students. His field of research is devoted to the diagnostic and numerical prediction of severe weather events, local circulations in Mediterranean Areas (see breezes, orographic flows) and impact of air quality, spacial and temporal variability of rainfall and regionalimpact of climatic changes in Mediterranean region. Since 1995 he has published 50 papers and reports, 28 of them in refereed journals as Geophysical Research Letters, Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society, Monthly Weather Review, Journal of Applied Meteorology, Atmospheric Research, International Journal of Climatology or Annales Geophysicae. Along these papers he shows, between other issues, the influence of vegetation on mountain waves, some numerical simulations about heavy rainfalls, tornadoes, wind storms, sea breeze and coastal pollutants difussion, and so on, and analysis of the evolution of extreme rainfalls. He has organised the 4th Plinius Conference on Mediterranean Storms and he is the co-editor of its proceedings. He has participated in 12 national and international projects like MEDEX, ANOMALIA or HYDROPTIMET, related with Natural Hazards in Europe. He has given some invited lectures and courses, some of them in the framework of the EGS Plinius Conference on Mediterranean Storms, the Summer School in “ Modeling Techniques for weather forecast applied to the environment” or in the NOAA/National Severe Storms Laboratory.