Mario Raffa is the leader of the PRESTO unit (Short-term PREdictions and Systemic TOols) within the REMHI division. He obtained a Master’s Degree in Electronic Engineering for Automation and Telecommunications from the University of Sannio in 2014. Since 2022, he has been leading the REgional Models unit, after working as a research assistant from 2015 to 2021. His main work focuses on convective-scale climate simulations, with experience in regional climate models such as COSMO-CLM and ICON-CLM. He has expertise in the development of statistical and numerical algorithms for weather forecasting, the processing of satellite and climate data, the design of operational workflows, and the management of long-term simulations in HPC environments. He is a member of the coordination group of the CLM-Community and serves as deputy coordinator of the SOILVEG working group (soil and vegetation). He is actively involved in the CORDEX initiative. He has contributed to several research projects, including WEC (Climate-KIC), EUCP (H2020), NEXTDATA (FISR), the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S – ECMWF), HIGHLANDER (EC), GLORI4DE.