Sebastiàn Montserrat is a Full Professor at the Department of Physics of the University of the Balearic Islands since March 2018. After a PhD in Physics by the University of the Balearic Islands (UIB) in 1991 he has been a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Meteorology of the University of Reading in UK (1991-1992) funded by a postdoctoral grant of the Spanish Ministry of Education. Previously to his present position at the UIB he has been associate professor at the same University since October 1992. He has been a researcher at the Mediterranean Institute for Advanced Studies (IMEDEA), a joint center between the UIB and the Spanish Research Council (CSIC) since January 1995 until April 2015.

In a first stage he was involved in the research of gravity waves and other mesoscale processes in the atmosphere. His PhD dealt with the study of the atmospheric forcing responsible to the generation of large amplitude short period sea level oscillations in harbors of the Balearic Islands (phenomenon locally known as “rissaga”). During his postdoctoral stay at University of Reading, his research was devoted to the study of atmospheric gravity waves of topographic origin. Then his interests moved towards the physical oceanography field, mainly working on the characterization of large amplitude seiches externally forced by open-ocean long waves atmospherically generated. He focused in characterizing their similarities and differences with tsunamis. His pioneering contributions in this field coined the term “meteotsunami” or “tsunami of meteorological origin”, now widely used, and the study of meteotsunamis became a subject of growing interest in scientific literature.

Most of his scientific productivity is related to the study of meteotsunamis in both, their atmospheric origin, and its manifestation as ocean waves at coastal areas. His principal field of expertise has been related to data analysis and signal processing. He has also worked in the relationships between hydrodynamics and fishery resources around the Balearic Islands, and in the study of eddy properties in the open ocean.