Dr Heyddy Calderon is working to provide secure and sustainable water sources for vulnerable populations in a region of Central America known as the Dry Corridor, spanning Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua and Costa Rica. About 3.5 million people out of 10.5 million in the region need humanitarian assistance, and 1.6 million suffer food insecurity. Precipitation can be scarce for long periods, exacerbated by climate change. To better understand climate threats and vulnerability in the region, Dr Calderon and colleagues formed a network of Central American water, social, and economic scientists who are committed to improving the population’s capacity to cope with climate variability and climate change, and to providing information that can help decision-makers and local stakeholders plan and prepare for the future.

Dr Calderon’s first became interested in sustainable water management as an undergraduate in chemical engineering. After graduating in 2001, she received a grant from the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) to pursue a master’s degree in hydrogeology at the University of Calgary, where she focused on groundwater flow modeling. After graduating in 2004, she worked for 5 years as adjunct professor at the National Autonomous University of Nicaragua, Managua (UNAN-Managua), where she realized the need for an integrative and collaborative approach to tackle the impact of climate change in water resources. This led her to the UNESCO Institute for Water Education, now the IHE Delft Institute for Water Education in the Netherlands, where she completed a PhD in Hydrology and Water Resources in 2014.In 2018, she was appointed the first female and youngest director of the Institute of Geology and Geophysics at UNAN-Managua, where she has worked since 2016.Dr. Calderon has received an International Science Foundation grant (2012) and the prestigious Faculty for the Future Grant from the Schlumberger Foundation (2012–2014). She has been invited as guest lecturer in water resources and climate change at various Central American universities and the University of Denver. She has supervised several PhD, master’s and undergrad theses and has collaborated with the National Water Authority of Nicaragua.