Oscar Alvarez is Civil Engineer, M.Eng. in Water Resources, and Ph.D. in Marine Sciences. He is currently associate professor in coastal physical oceanographer at the Department of Physics and Geosciences at Universidad del Norte in Barranquilla, Colombia. Oscar is senior researcher of the national system of science, technology, and innovation of Colombia.

His main field of work is the analysis of resources, feasibility of implementation, and possible environmental impacts of marine energies, with special focus on Salinity Gradient Energy. He also investigates on estuarine hydrodynamics from both field data and modelling. The delta of the Magdalena River, discharging into the Caribbean Sea in Barranquilla, has been the most important lab for his research group to approach estuarine processes.