Fidel is an igneous petrologist and geochemist specialising in volcanic processes. He has been involved in developing new geochronological methods to determine the rates of volcanic and magmatic processes occurring on human time scales. 

He studied Earth Sciences at the University of Barcelona and received his PhD from the University of Geneva. He was Marie Curie Fellow at the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), and subsequently held positions as a Post-Doctoral Fellow at Ruhr-University in Bochum and Ramon y Cajal Fellow at the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) in Barcelona. 

In August 2019 Fidel was appointed Interim Director of the Earth Observatory of Singapore (EOS) and in the same year he was appointed the Provost’s Chair in Earth Sciences at the University. Prior academic achievements include the National Research Foundation Investigatorship (2017), Fellow of the University Scholars Program (2015), and the prestigious Wager Medal presented by the International Association of Volcanology and Chemistry of the Earth’s Interior (2013).

Throughout his academic career, Fidel has authored or co-authored more than 70 research papers published in peer-reviewed journals. He is currently Associate Editor of Frontiers in Earth Sciences and the Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research. In previous years he was Associate Editor of American Mineralogist (2013-2017), Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems (2014), and Geologica Acta (2009-2017).

In his roles at EOS and ASE, he has supervised eight post-doctoral fellows and 13 PhD students, 10 of whom have graduated and currently hold research positions at EOS and other institutions.

Fidel is currently a visiting professor at EOS.