WATER FUTURES SERIES: Mexico’s Water Futures: Three Institutional Perspectives

Daniela Giardina has nearly two decades of experience working with non-governmental organizations and research institutions on humanitarian and development projects. Her work has taken her to Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean, and Central and Southeast Asia, where she has focused on water and food security projects. She has conducted technical trainings and assessments, and managed projects from design to implementation, including monitoring and evaluation.

Before MIT, Giardina worked at Oxfam America, where she directed disaster risk reduction and climate resilience initiatives, working on approaches to strengthen local leadership, community based disaster risk reduction, and anticipatory action. Her role at Oxfam required her to oversee multimillion-dollar initiatives, supervising international teams, managing complex donor portfolios, and ensuring rigorous monitoring across programs. She connected hands-on research with community-orientated implementation, for example, by partnering with MIT’s D-Lab to launch an innovation lab in rural El Salvador. Her experience will help guide J-WAFS as it pursues impactful research that will make a difference on the ground.

Beyond program delivery, Giardina has played a strategic leadership role in shaping Oxfam’s global disaster risk reduction strategy and representing the organization at high-level UN and academic forums. She is multilingual and adept at building partnerships across cultures, having worked with governments, funders, and community-based organizations to strengthen resilience and advance equitable access to water and food.

Giardina holds a PhD in sustainable development from the University of Brescia, Italy. She also holds a master’s degree in environmental engineering from the Politecnico of Milan, Italy and is a chartered engineer since 2005 (equivalent to a professional engineering license in the U.S.). She also serves as vice chair of the Boston Network for International Development (BNID), a nonprofit that connects and strengthens Boston’s global development community.

Jorge Alberto Arriaga Medina holds a Bachelor’s degree in International Relations with honors and a specialization in Environmental and Ecological Economics, both from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). He also holds a Master’s degree in Environmental Technology, with a focus on water resources management, from Imperial College London. He is a graduate of the Progressive Leadership Program of the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung Foundation and the School of Transparency, sponsored by Transparency International’s Lithuania chapter. In 2010, he received the “Mexico City–China” fellowship from the Mexico City Institute of Science and Technology to conduct research on rural enterprises in Beijing, China.

He has participated in consulting projects for the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the University of Oxford, the National Water Commission (CONAGUA), the Mexican Institute of Water Technology (IMTA), and the Scientific and Technological Consultative Forum, among other national and international organizations. He has served as Coordinator of the Water Observatory of the Hydraulic Development Support Program for the states of Puebla, Oaxaca, and Tlaxcala. He currently serves as Executive Coordinator of the UNAM Water Network and the Regional Center for Water Security, under the auspices of UNESCO.

Dr. Pabel A. Cervantes Avilés is a Professor Researcher at Tecnológico de Monterrey, where he leads research and innovation in sustainable water technologies. He holds a B.Sc. in Chemical Engineering, an M.Sc. in Water Sciences, and a Ph.D. in Water Science and Technology, and completed a 2.5-year postdoctoral fellowship at the University of California, Santa Barbara. His work integrates environmental engineering, nanotechnology, and circular economy principles to address critical challenges in water pollution and scarcity. His research focuses on the fate and effects of emerging contaminants, the safe application of nanomaterials, and the recovery of valuable resources from wastewater (minerals, clean water, and energy), advancing technology scale-up and transfer to the industrial sector. He is also a dedicated educator, training future professionals in environmental chemistry, bioprocesses, and sustainable process design. Dr. Cervantes maintains active academic collaborations with leading institutions such as Soka University (Japan), UC Santa Barbara, UC Davis, and the Technical University of Denmark (DTU), as well as Mexico s top universities including UNAM and the University of Guanajuato. He also strengthens strategic partnerships with Arizona State University (ASU) and The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin) to advance innovation and water security through joint strategic projects. Additionally, he collaborates with industry leaders including Grupo Modelo, TIF-certified meat processing plants, MAIXICO, and SOLENA to develop water treatment and waste management solutions. He has been recognized nationally and internationally, receiving the Award for the Best Ph.D. Thesis in Environmental Engineering (2017), the Young Water Professional Mexico Award (2014), and two consecutive Best Platform Presentation awards at international conferences (2014 and 2017). From 2021 2023 he received competitive funding from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS). In 2023 and 2024, he was awarded the IWA Grundfos Fellowship to advance the Water Action Agenda within multilateral and diplomatic forums, including the United Nations Water Conference. Dr. Cervantes currently serves on the Global Steering Committee of the IWA Nano & Water Specialist Group and has held leadership roles at major international events such as the IWA Young Water Professionals Conference (2019), ACS Fall Conference (2019), Latin American IWA YWP Conferences (2019 and 2021), and the World Water Congress (2024 and 2026). He is a Level-2 member of the Mexican National System of Researchers, has published more than 50 peer-reviewed articles, delivered over 20 invited talks, organized more than 10 academic and outreach events, registered 2 patents, supervised more than 20 theses, and actively collaborates with key stakeholders in the global water sector, while leading funded projects in Mexico and abroad.

Gabriela Soto Laveaga is Professor of the History of Science and Antonio Madero Professor for the Study of Mexico at Harvard University. Her research and teaching interests include modern Latin America, the intersection of science and culture, public health, and scientific and medical exchange in the Global South. Her first book, Jungle Laboratories: Mexican Peasants, National Projects and the Making of the Pill, won the Robert K. Merton Best Book Prize in Science, Knowledge, and Technology Studies from the American Sociological Association. She is completing two book manuscripts Sanitizing Rebellion: Physician Strikes, Public Health and Repression in Twentieth Century Mexico, which examines the role of healthcare providers as both critical actors in the formation of modern states and as social agitators and her latest project which seeks to re-narrate histories of twentieth century agriculture development aid from the point of view of India and Mexico. She has held numerous grants, including those from the Ford, Mellon, Fulbright, DAAD, and Gerda Henkel Foundations. She was a member at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton, 2019-2020, and will hold the Dibner Distinguished Fellowship in History of Science and Technology at the Huntington Library, 2023-24.