07 — Curriculum Vitae

Rodríguez-Huerta, Edgar

Rights Lab Senior Research Fellow in Social Sustainability and Complex Systems

Data Science, Sustainability and Supply Chain Mapping | £2.1m in Co-I & PI grant funding | FWCI: 1.42

email: edgar.rodriguezhuerta@nottingham.ac.uk · ORCID: 0000-0002-6887-0040 · LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/edgarodriguez/ · Nottingham, UK

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Experience

Oct 2024 – present

Rights Lab Senior Research Fellow in Social Sustainability and Complex Systems

University of Nottingham, Rights Lab — Nottingham, UK

  • Quantitative research focused on understanding climate change and decent work interconnections.
  • Supply chain mapping and analysis to generate risk assessments using Social-LCA.
  • Generation of climate change models to explore effect on labour conditions.

Dec 2021 – Sep 2024

Rights Lab Research Fellow and Lead in Social-Ecological Systems Modelling

University of Nottingham, Rights Lab — Nottingham, UK

  • Awarded Global Talent Visa by UK Government with British Academy endorsement

Dec 2021 – Sep 2024

Rights Lab Research Fellow in Sustainable Ecosystems and Society

University of Nottingham, Rights Lab — Nottingham, UK

Industry Experience

Jan 2010 – Jan 2013

Senior Project Developer and Business Intelligence Specialist

JLC Corporation — Mérida, México

  • Managed Business Intelligence and Enterprise Resource Program software, including stakeholder training
  • Designed dashboards and reports for retail, financial and academic sectors.

Education

Sep 2015 – Mar 2020

Ph.D. in Sustainability Science

Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Institute for Sustainability Science — Barcelona, Spain

  • Dissertation: Water Societal Metabolism in Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico. Application of Multi-Scale Integrated Analysis of Societal and Ecosystem Metabolism (MuSIASEM)
  • Three peer-reviewed publications as first author
  • Built exploratory tool to analyse effect of climate change in water demand (R, QGIS, Tableau)

2013 – 2015

Master’s degree in Sustainability Science and Technology

Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Institute for Sustainability Science — Barcelona, Spain

  • 120 ECTS. Grade: 8.9/10. Rank 2/12
  • MSc thesis: Societal Metabolism in the Energy Sector in Catalunya, applying spatial analysis with QGIS
  • Collaborated with multi-cultural and interdisciplinary team

2008 – 2009

Master’s degree in Logistics

Universidad de Zaragoza, Zaragoza Logistics Center — Zaragoza, Spain

  • 105 ECTS. Grade: 9.1/10
  • MSc thesis: Methodologies for a Sustainability Balanced Scorecard in the Logistics Sector
  • Professional fellowship program in logistics. Training program in multiple companies

2003 – 2008

Undergraduate degree in Industrial Engineering

Instituto Tecnológico de Mérida — Mérida, México

  • Grade: 9.4/10

Selected Publications

Peer reviewed

  • Rodríguez-Huerta, E., Bell, B., Jackson, B., Blackstone, N.T., Battaglia, K., Marquez, A.S., Benoît Norris, C., Decker Sparks, J.L., Conrad, Z., Matteson, J. (2025). Current and recommended diets in the USA have embedded forced labour risk. Nature Food. https://www.nature.com/articles/s43016-025-01242-8
  • Rodríguez-Huerta, E., Leão L., Landman, T. (2025). Climate change, decent work and workers’ health in Brazil: theoretical considerations. Revista Brasileira de Saúde Ocupacional. https://doi.org/10.1590/2317-6369/16224en2025v50eddsst12
  • Tigchelaar, M., Jackson, B., Selig, E., Davis, A., O’Regan, E., Trond, K., Nakayama, S., Boyd, D., Cheung, W., Rodríguez-Huerta, E., Williams, C., Decker Sparks, J. (2025). Conceptualization of Decent Work in Fishing in a Changing Climate. Marine Policy. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpol.2025.106846
  • Boyd, D., Jackson, B., Decker Sparks, J., Giles M. F, Girindran, R., Gosiling, S., Trodd, Z. Ni Bhriain, L., Rodríguez-Huerta, E. (2024). The future of decent work: Forecasting heat stress and the intersection of sustainable development challenges in India’s brick kilns. Sustainable Development. https://doi.org/10.1002/sd.3272
  • Blackstone, N.T., Battaglia K., Rodríguez-Huerta, E., Bell, B., Decker Sparks J., Cash S., Conrad Z., Nikkhah A., Jackson B., Matteson J., Gao S., Fuller K., Zhang F.F., Webb P. (2024). Diets cannot be sustainable without ensuring the well-being of communities, workers, and animals in food value chains. Nature Food. https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-024-01048-0
  • Lumley-Sapanski A., Rodríguez-Huerta, E., Young, M., Nicholson A., Schwarz K. (2024). Criminalizing survivors of modern slavery: the United Kingdom’s National Referral Mechanism as a border-making process. Journal of Social Policy. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0047279424000230
  • Blackstone, N.T., Rodríguez-Huerta, E., Battaglia K., Jackson B., Jackson E., Benoît Norris C., Decker Sparks, J.L. (2023). Forced labour risk is pervasive in the US land-based food supply. Nature Food. https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-023-00794-x
  • Rodríguez-Huerta, E., Rosas-Casals, M., Sorman A.H. (2017). A societal metabolism approach to job creation and renewable energy transitions in Catalonia. Energy Policy. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301421517303786
  • Rodríguez-Huerta, E., Rosas-Casals, M., Hernandez-Terronez, L.M (2019). Water societal metabolism in the Yucatan Peninsula. The impact of climate change on the recharge of groundwater by 2030. Journal of Cleaner Production. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959652619322875
  • Rodríguez-Huerta, E., Rosas-Casals, M., Hernandez-Terronez, L.M (2020). A water balance model to estimate climate change impact on groundwater recharge in Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico. Hydrological Science Journal. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02626667.2019.1702989

Reports

Grants and Fellowships

2025 – 2026

UK Home Office (Modern Slavery Innovation Fund)

The GeoAI for Decent Work: Innovating Engagement with Government, Civil Society and Survivors

2024 – 2025

British Academy (ISPF ODA Challenge-Oriented Research Grants)

Climate Change, Occupational Health, and Decent Work: Worker Vulnerabilities and Response in Brazilian Agriculture

2024 – 2025

UK Home Office (Modern Slavery Innovation Fund)

Adding value to the GeoAI Platform for Decent Work: A Survivor-Informed Socio-Ecological Assessment

2024 – 2025

Industry collaboration (Retail sector)

Salient and Evolving Human Rights Risks

2024 – 2025

UK Home Office (Modern Slavery Innovation Fund)

Using Data Science to Transform India’s Brick Kilns

2021 – 2022

British Academy (Just Transitions within Sectors and Industries Globally)

Solar Energy, Modern Slavery, and the Just Transition

2021 – 2022

World Wild Fund (USA)

The Social and Ecological Impacts of Supply Chains

2014 – 2020

Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnólogia (CONACyT - México)

PhD and MSc Scholarship

2014 – 2015

Agència de Gestió d’Ajuts Universitaris i de Recerca (AGAUR)

MSc Fellowship for Directed Academic Activities

Awards

2025

Distinguished alumni of 2025 in the Industrial Engineering programme

Instituto Tecnólogico de Mérida

2024

THE Awards — Finalist, Research Project of the Year in Social Sciences

Team member of Slavery from Space: Using Satellites for Human Rights and Sustainable Development

2024

University of Nottingham Knowledge Exchange and Impact Awards

Team member of Slavery from Space: Using Satellites for Human Rights and Sustainable Development

2008

Chamber of Commerce of Aragon, Spain — Memoria Pilot award

Report in Logistics Excellence for large enterprises (La Bella Easo, Zaragoza)

Selected Events and Collaborations

Jul 2025

Conference: II International Congress on Ecological Humanities

The Johns Hopkins University - Universitat Pompeu Fabra Public Policy Center — Barcelona, Spain

Decent Work and Workers Health nexus in Brazilian agriculture

Jun 2025

Workshop: Just transitions in food, farming and fisheries

Ethical Trading Initiative, IIED, BananaLink — London, UK

Apr 2025

Workshop: Addressing Human Trafficking and Forced Labour in the Anthropocene

Survivor Alliance, The Human Trafficking Legal Center, The Freedom Fund — Oxford, UK

Sep 2024

Workshop: Visualizing Complexity Science

Complexity Science Hub — Vienna, Austria

2022 – 2024

Collaboration: Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University

Leading A Sustainability Transition in Nutrition Globally (LASTING) Project — Boston, MA, USA

May 2023

Workshop: Decent Fisheries Work in a Changing Climate

Stanford University, the King Center and Center for Ocean Solutions — Stanford, CA, USA

Mar 2022

Brown bag sessions

U.S. Department of Labor and Tufts University — Washington DC, USA

How Social Life Cycle Assessment (S-LCA) can help address forced labour

Feb 2021

22nd Ordinary Session of the Yucatan Peninsula Basin Council

Consejo de Cuenca de la Península de Yucatán & Ithaca Environmental — Mérida, México

Invitation to co-design the Regional Water Program 2020-2024 of the Yucatan Peninsula

Teaching

Nov 2021

Data management and visualization for academic research

Instituto Tecnológico de Mérida — Mérida, México

Graduate course

  • Course for MSc students in Regional Development Studies

Jul 2025

Seminar: Sustainability science to tackle forced labour: methods and measurements

Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Institute for Sustainability Science — Barcelona, Spain

Seminar

Selected Extra Training

Jun 2025

Research Communication Programme

Research Academy University of Nottingham

Apr 2025

MOOC: Partnering for change — Link research to societal challenges

Network for Transdisciplinary Research td-net of the Swiss Academies of Arts and Sciences

Feb 2024

Stepping into Leadership 2023/24 — LMA Development Programmes

Research Academy University of Nottingham

Oct 2023

MOOC: Analysing/Presenting Data/Information

Edward Tufte Course (8h)

Jan 2021

MOOC: Data Science — Statistics and Machine Learning Specialization

Coursera Programme (Johns Hopkins University) (133h)

Oct 2020

MOOC: Specialization in Data Science (R Programming)

Coursera Programme (Johns Hopkins University) (290h)

Sep 2020

MOOC: Spatial Data Science and Applications

Coursera Programme (Yonsei University) (24h)

Aug 2020

MOOC: Systems Thinking in Public Health

Coursera Programme (Johns Hopkins University) (20h)

Jul 2020

MOOC: Ecosystem Services — A Method for Sustainable Development

Coursera Programme (University of Geneva) (24h)

Jul 2020

MOOC: Sustainability of Social-Ecological Systems — Nexus among Water, Energy, and Food

Coursera Programme (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona) (48h)

Skills

Programming

R, SQL (intermediate), Quarto

Software

Tableau [Desktop and Prep], Rstudio, QGIS, OpenLCA, Zotero, VosViewer, Xerte (intermediate), Affinity (learning), Observable (learning)

Languages

Spanish

Native

English

Fluent

Academic Service

Grants and Journals Reviewed

British Academy for Knowledge Frontiers: Just Transition; Journal of Cleaner Production; Energy Policy; Hydrogeology Journal; Joule; Anti-Trafficking Review; Economía Creativa.

Student Supervision

PhD Students: 3 supervised — Topics in Food Systems. MSc Students: 4 supervised — Research in data extraction, and regional development. Support for MSc students from the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) for the project “Sociotechnical dimension of renewable energies” (Apr 2024). BSc Students: 3 supervised — Placement students related to data science projects and just transition.

Societies

Member of The British Academy Career Researcher Network since 2023.