Dr. Ortega-Farias is an Agronomist-Winemaker Engineer from the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, and holds a Master's degree in Irrigation Engineering and a Ph.D. in Bio-mathematical Modeling, degrees obtained from Oregon State University (United States). Currently, the researcher works as Professor at the Faculty of Agricultural Sciences and director of the Center for Research and Transfer in Irrigation and Agro-climatology (CITRA) of the University of Talca, a unit in which he carries out research activities.
teaching, research and extension in the areas of bio-mathematical modeling, sustainable management of water resources, agro-climatology and remote sensing. In addition, Dr. Ortega-Farias is the current director of the interdisciplinary program "Adaptation of Agriculture to Climate Change" and of the Master in Irrigation and Precision Agriculture. Some of his relevant projects, related to this proposal, are the following: Remote sensing applied to optimize the use of water and energy in fruit trees and vines; Development of a Geo-informatics platform. FONDEF, 2011-2014 (Director); Development of a remote sensing energy balance algorithm to estimate olive evapotranspiration using multispectral and thermal sensors aboard an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) (Director); Implementation of satellite and meteorological technology to strengthen productivity, efficiency and management of water use in agriculture in the Maule region ”FONDECYT, 2013-2015 (Principal Investigator); Calibration of two-source models to estimate vineyard water requirements using ground-based weather measurements and high-resolution thermal and multispectral images acquired by an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). FONDECYT, 2016-2019. (Principal investigator); Development of water stress energy balance indices of vineyards using meteorological data and high-resolution thermal infrared (TIR) ??cameras placed on an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). FONDECYT, 2016-2019 (Principal Investigator). For more information regarding the researcher's publications and projects, check the following link: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Samuel_Ortega-Farias