VANESA
ORTEGA LOPEZ

She holds a Ph.D. in Engineering that obtained the Extraordinary Doctorate Award from the University of Burgos (UBU), in 2011, within the doctoral program of Civil and Industrial Engineering. Previously, she had also obtained other awards such as the 2nd National Degree Award (2002). She has received various scholarships, including a postgraduate scholarship from the Regional Government (2004-2005). Her professional experience is linked to that Council and to the company Tragsa S.A. over the years 2005-2008. Simultaneously, in 2004, she began to work at the UBU as an Adjunct Professor, changing to a full-time position in 2008. Currently, she holds the position of Full Professor in the Area of Mechanics of Continuous Media and Theory of Structures of the Civil Engineering Department. Over her academic career, she has conducted more than 4,000 hours of teaching across various subject areas. She has supervised a large number of Degree and Master Theses and, since 2013, she has been Head of the Teaching Innovation Group "Transition from High School to University". She is currently Head of the Department of Civil Engineering (September 2025–present) and previously served as Academic Secretary from 2012 to 2019. She is the Coordinator of the Erasmus Agreement with the University of Tras-os-Montes and Alto Douro (Portugal, since 2005) and the Erasmus Agreement with the University of Padua (Italy, since 2017).She has carried out several research stays at the University of Padua between 2021 and the present and has been teaching in the Master's Degree in Environmental Engineering, as visiting professor. She is also a member of the PhD School of this University since 2018 and maintains close collaboration with professors from the Department of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering, with whom she has co-authored several research articles and conference communications. She leads the SUCONS (SUstainable CONStruction) Research Group at the University of Burgos and the Consolidated Research Unit UIC-231 of the Junta de Castilla y León. he group’s main research focus is the reuse of by-products in construction and civil engineering applications. SUCONS has participated in the national excellence networks BIA2017 and BIA2023, is a member of the EcoSustainable Concrete Association (EcoH), and a corporate member of the RILEM, where its researchers contribute to technical committees related to hydraulic and asphalt concretes. She has co-authored a significant number of JCR (WoS)-indexed articles since 2011, as well as several book chapters, papers on teaching innovation, and patents. She has supervised the PhD thesis of Dr. Marta Skaf (2016), focused on the use of steel slags in bituminous mixtures; the PhD of Dr. Aratz García-Llona (2020), with International and Industrial distinction, on the simulation of steel-reinforced fiber concrete, in collaboration with TECNALIA Research & Innovation; the PhD of Dr. Víctor Revilla (2021) on recycled concrete, carried out during his FPU fellowship; the PhD of Dr. Jorge Javier Guevara (2022) on the development of recycled-material blocks for improving thermal and acoustic performance in housing; and the PhD of Dr. Javier Manso (2025), also an FPU fellow, on recycling wind turbine blade waste in concrete production and its Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). She has participated in numerous research projects and contracts, mostly focused on new materials, structures, and waste reuse in construction. She has also presented work at many international conferences, with publications in conference proceedings.