Alejandro Martínez-Cava has a PhD in Aerospace Engineering and an MSc in Aeronautical Engineering by Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM, Madrid, Spain). Since 2018, he has been teaching in undergraduate and master level courses, such as Aerospace Technology, Aerodynamics, Advanced Aerodynamics, Applied Computational Fluid Dynamics, or Computer Science. In 2020 he joined the Department of Aircraft and Space Vehicles of E.T.S.I. Aeronáutica y del Espacio, at UPM, as an Assistant Professor (Profesor Ayudante Doctor), where, together with his teaching activities, he has directed/co-directed more than 10 Final Year projects in Aerospace undergraduate and master level courses. Additionally, he is currently co-directing 3 PhD theses, awarded with FPI, Marie Curie and Spanish Goverment scholarships, respectively. In February 2023, Alejandro was promoted to a Tenured Associate Professor (Profesor Contratado Doctor) position.
 
Before his incorporation to academia, Alejandro worked within the aerospace industry as an Aerodynamics Research Engineer of Airbus Group Innovations UK. Over a two-year period, he was involved in a set of cutting-edge projects on aircraft aerodynamic design, destined to reduced carbon footprint of the aerospace industry throughout the development of laminar flow technologies aimed to reduced aerodynamic drag, and hence fuel consumption.
 
His research career up to date has provided the scientific community with several contributions, co-authoring 9 JCR journal articles and 5 articles in international conference proceedings, developed throughout the participation in 6 international projects funded by the European Commission and the Spain Government. In these projects, research lines on reducing fuel emissions through aerodynamic drag reduction were established, building bridges between industry and academia on the pursue of revolutionary and greener aircraft configurations. Among these years, Alejandro stablished a proactive collaborating research line between the Applied Mathematics Department of ETSIAE and the Experimental Turbine Aerothermal Laboratory of Purdue University (USA). As a result of it, a deeper insight on the flow control of inner flows in high pressure turbines was gained, aiming to build more efficient and compact engine systems.
 
Together with his contributions, Alejandro has reviewed a large set of manuscripts submitted for publication on JCR international journals of the aerospace and wind engineering fields.
 
As a research member of the Applied Aerodynamics group of Instituto Universitario de Migrogravedad Ignacio Da Riva (IDR/UPM), he has participated in more than 15 R&D projects for the Civil Engineering, Wind Engineering and Aerospace industries, providing with theoretical, experimental, and numerical analyses of diverse aerodynamic designs and configurations. Part of these analyses were crucial on the correct design and maintenance of solar collector plants, that are exposed to severe winds in extreme conditions. Expanding the knowledge in this field and enlarging the life of solar energy plants has a great impact on the achievement of the 7th and 9th Sustainable Development Goals.
 
Besides the aforementioned activities, Alejandro has participated at a Design Judge of the international engineering competition Formula Student UK, providing with insight and feedback to engineering students. Since 2017, he is a Faculty Advisor of the Formula Student Team UPM Racing, composed by more than thirty students that each year design and manufacture a formula-type car and compete internationally with top-class world universities. He advises students on during the design process of the car, directs Final Year Projects ligated to the aerodynamic design of the car, and contributes on the preparation of the static events for the competition.