Teresa Rivas is tenured lecturer in the School of Mine and Energy Engineering, of University of Vigo, teaching about mineral processing methods. She focuses her research in the deterioration processes affecting materials of archaeologic and architectural cultural heritage such as stone, mural paintings, mortars, ceramics and rock art and, also, contemporaneous mural paintings. Also, she develops research about the optimization of conservation treatments such as cleaning, consolidation, protection and desalation.

In the last 10 years, she has led three national research projects, under a competitive regime (Xunta de Galicia, R&D&i Spanish National Programme -Challenges for the Society 2010), focused on optimizing the methods of desalination, cleaning and consolidation of rocks and mortars in Cultural Heritage. From 2018 to 2021, she coordinated in the University of Vigo an Erasmus+ Knowledge Alliance KA2 (Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices) project, Conservation of Art in Public Space-CAPuS, from 2018-2020, which gathers 15 full partners and 2 associated partners from 6 countries, including universities, academies, companies and research centres. She has also directed more than 50 I+D contracts with companies from  conservation&restoration and building rehabilitation sectors, being a regular scientific advisor during in situ conservation interventions.  She is the co-author of 121 scientific papers published on impact journals (scopus, 2023) and has an H rating of 26. She is co-author of more than 115 congress contributions and authored 3 key notes in international congress. In the last 10 years he has supervised 4 doctoral theses, all of them focused on methods of protection, consolidation, desalination and cleaning (including laser) of rocks (granites and slates) used in cultural heritage. She has been member of the organizing committee of four international congress; secretary (2015- 2018) and director (2018 to date) of the Department of Natural resources and environment engineering of the University of Vigo and Coordinator of the PhD Program in Protection of Cultural Heritage of the University of Vigo from 2015-2018. She has four Research Periods recognized by the Spanish CNEA (1992-1997, 1998-2003, 2004-2009, 2010-2016) and she  is coauthor of three invention patents, two of them applied to electrochemical methods of stone desalation.