Alvar is a water governance specialist with over fifteen years of experience in water policy and technical assistance across four continents. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science, graduating Summa Cum Laude from the Autonomous University of Barcelona. He earned his MSc in Water Science, Policy and Management and his DPhil in Human Geography from the University of Oxford, where he also served as a teaching assistant. He was a Research Fellow and Acting Head of Office at the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) in Egypt, overseeing a portfolio of projects in five countries valued at US$12.6 million, with fieldwork in Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Lebanon, and Jordan. He then served as Senior Water Strategy Officer in the Department of Planning and Environment of New South Wales (Australia), where he coordinated the design of state water management strategies and advised on groundwater decisions. He has been a visiting researcher at the Complutense University of Madrid and a consultant to the World Bank's Global Water Practice. He is the author of more than forty scientific articles on groundwater, irrigation, climate change and water governance.