Prof. Manuel Blanco has more than 30 years of experience as a solar researcher and engineer and has contributed to advancing the state-of the-art of Concentrating Solar Thermal (CST) technologies. He is an expert on Thermodynamics, Heat Transfer, Optics, and Modelling of Energy Systems. He is a Full Professor and holder of the European Research Area (ERA) Chair in Solar Thermal Energy of the Cyprus Institute’s Energy, Environment and Water Research Center (EEWRC). He is also the Chair of the Executive Committee of SolarPACES, the Technology Collaboration Program of the International Energy Agency responsible for promoting the development and deployment of solar thermal power technologies and the solar-assisted manufacturing of fuels and chemicals. Until August, 2016, he has been Science Leader of the Solar Energy Systems Research Group of CSIRO -Australia’s National Research Agency, as well as the Director of the Australian Solar Thermal Research Initiative (ASTRI). He is the former Director of the Solar Thermal Energy Department of the National Renewable Energy Centre of Spain (CENER), Chair and Full Professor of the Engineering Department of the University of Texas at Brownsville, and Director of the Plataforma Solar de Almería of CIEMAT, which is the largest European solar research infrastructure.