Rodrigo Aguayo
Hey, I’m Rodrigo! 👋, a postdoctoral researcher at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel in Belgium🇧🇪, part of the bglacier group 🧊. My current research interests lie at the interface of (large-scale) hydrology 💧 and glaciology ❄️ and climate change 🌍
Growing up in Chile, I’ve always been drawn to mountains and water. That fascination led me to study how climate change is reshaping the glaciers and rivers of Patagonia — and increasingly, mountain regions around the world. I combine process-based models with machine learning to tackle questions about glacier evolution, water security, and what a warmer future means for the people and ecosystems that depend on mountain water.
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ResearchGate Research Themes
Glaciology & Glacier Hydrology
Global and regional glacier evolution, glacier runoff projections, ice dynamics, glacier lake-terminating systems, multi-century glacier evolution.
Large-Scale Hydrology & Climate Impacts
Climate change impacts on water resources, hydrological droughts, freshwater inputs to coastal systems, hybrid glacio-hydrological modelling.
Deep Learning for Earth Systems
Deep learning applications for glacier buffering of streamflow droughts, AI/ML for hydrological prediction, open-source reproducible workflows.
Open Science & Data
Open hydrometeorological datasets (PatagoniaMet), reproducible research, open-source tools for glacier modelling.
Featured Publications
Van Tricht, L., Zekollari, H., Huss, M., Rounce, D., Schuster, L., … and Farinotti, D. (2026). Peak glacier extinction in the mid-twenty-first century. Nature Climate Change.
Aguayo, R., Zekollari, H., Hanus, S., Baez-Villanueva, O., Mendoza, P. and Maussion, F. (2025). Hybrid glacio-hydrological modelling reveals contrasting runoff changes in Western Patagonia over the 21st century. Earth’s Future.
Aguayo, R., León-Muñoz, J., Aguayo, M., Baez-Villanueva, O., Fernandez, A., Zambrano-Bigiarini, M. and Jacques-Coper, M. (2024). PatagoniaMet: A multi-source hydrometeorological dataset for Western Patagonia (40-56ºS). Scientific Data.
Aguayo, R., Maussion, F., Ultee, L., Mackay, J., Caro, A., … and Aguayo, M. (2024). Unravelling the sources of uncertainty in glacier runoff projections in the Patagonian Andes (40–56° S). The Cryosphere.