2nd Purdue-MexicoWorkshoP on sustainability

May 20-21, 2014InstItute of BIotechnology, cuernavaca, MexIco

Purdue-Mexico center for sustainability

2

Purdue universityPurdue-Mexico center for sustainabilityGlobal Policy research instituteGlobal enGineerinG ProGraMschool of cheMical enGineerinG

MexicoacadeMia Mexicana de inGenieriaconacytinstitute of biotechnoloGy, unaM

Part

ners

sPon

sors

united statesPurdue university

• CollegeofAgriCulture• globAlengineeringProgrAm• globAlSuStAinAbilityinStitute• SChoolofChemiCAlengineering

carneGie Mellon university

Méxicoinstituto de investiGacion y transferencia de

tecnoloGia, nuevo leon universidad autonoMa MetroPolitana (uaM)universidad ibero - aMericanauniversidad nacional autÓnoMa de Mexico (unaM)

3

introduction

Purdue-Mexico center for sustainability

The first workshop organized by the Purdue – Mexico Center for Sustainability took place on the Purdue campus in West Lafayette, Indiana during April 29-30, 2013. By all measures, it was a successful event. We were honored to host six guests from various Mexican academic and industrial organizations; in total, 18 lectures were delivered on sustainability topics grouped around energy, nanotechnology, mitigating natural disasters and water. The list of speakers and the presentations are available at https://engineering.purdue.edu/PMCS. Several opportunities for collaboration were identified during the workshop, and some visitors from Mexico have already made their way to Purdue.

As noted in the 2012 charter of the Purdue – Mexico Center for Sustainability, a primary activity will be to attract Mexican graduate students, post-doctoral associates and other researchers for education and collaborative research at Purdue. The most important strategy to accomplish this goal is to seek reliable, long term funding sources; we are making progress in establishing an agreement with CONACYT which will enable many Mexican graduate students to come to Purdue to complete a MS or PhD degree in the Engineering, Agriculture and Science disciplines. We hope to have the first group of students supported by this program enrolled in classes at Purdue during the coming 2014-15 academic year.

We are excited to hold this second workshop at UNAM’s Institute of Biotechnology in Cuernavaca and we are grateful for the support received from CONACYT and the Academia Mexicana de Ingenieria to make this possible. We look forward to developing new collaborations and we are certain that in the not too distant future, we’ll hear about new accomplishments of the Mexican graduate students admitted at Purdue and advised by members of the Purdue – Mexico Center for Sustainability in both countries.

Director: Arvind Varma, R. Games Slayter Distinguished Professor and Jay & Cynthia Ihlenfeld Head of Chemical Engineering, Purdue

University

Associate Director: Enrico Martinez, Visiting Professor, School of Chemical Engineering, Purdue University

4

list of sPeakers

•Prof.ArvindVarma, Director Purdue-Mexico Center for Sustainability

•Prof.EnricoMartinez, Associate Director Purdue-Mexico Center for Sustainability

•Ing.EngriqueAguilar, Instituo Mexicano del Petróleo •Prof.NicholasCarpita, Purdue University•Prof.VictorM.CastañoMeneses, UNAM•Prof.JaimeCervantesdeGortari, UNAM•Prof.ClaudioEstradaGasca, UNAM•Ms.CristinaFarmus, Purdue University•Prof.AntonioFloresTlacuahuac, UIA•Prof.GuillermoGosset,UNAM•Prof.IgnacioGrossmann, Carnegie Mellon University •Prof.OscarMonroyHermosillo,UAM-Iztapalapa•Prof.ArvindRaman, Purdue University•Prof.DoraiswamiRamkrishna, Purdue University•Prof.EduardoReinosoAngulo,UNAM

5

tuesday, May 20, 2014 hosteria las Quintas9.00 am Welcome remarks9:30 to 1:00 Keynote lectures 1:00 to 2:30 lunch 2:30 to 6:00 Keynote lectures

tuesday, May 20, 2014 institute of biotechnoloGy9:00 t0 1:00 Keynote lectures 1:30 to 2:30 lunch 3:00 to 4:00 Breakout sessions4:00 to 5:00 Plenary session for conclusions and further Plans

6

Prof. arvind varMar. GaMes slayter distinGuished ProfessorJay and cynthia ihlenfeld head of cheMical enGineerinG

director, Purdue-Mexico center for sustainability

selected toPics related to enerGy and cheMicalsIn the presentation, some selected research programs to produce energy carriers and valuable chemicals from new or renewable sources, currently being conducted in my group, will be discussed. They include (i) hydrogen generation for vehicle applications [1,2], (ii) catalytic upgrading of bio-oils [3], (iii) utilization of glycerol, a biodiesel waste product, for its purification and production of valuable chemicals [4,5], and (iv) oxidative coupling of methane [6].

References1. M. Diwan, H.T. Hwang, A. Al-Kukhun and A. Varma, AIChE J., 2011, 57, 259. 2. H. T. Hwang and A. Varma, Int. J. Hydrogen Energy, 2013, 38, 1925. 3. D. Gao, C. Schweitzer, H. T. Hwang and A. Varma, Ind. Eng. Chem. Res., 2014; http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/ie500495z.4. W. Hu, D. Knight, B. Lowry and A. Varma, Ind. Eng. Chem. Res., 2010, 49, 10876.5. Y. Xiao, G. Xiao and A. Varma, Ind. Eng. Chem. Res., 2013, 52, 14291.6. R. Ghose, H. T. Hwang and A. Varma, Appl. Catal. A, 2013, 452, 147; 2014, 472, 39.

bioGraPhical inforMationDr. Arvind Varma is the R. Games Slayter Distinguished Professor and Jay & Cynthia Ihlenfeld Head, School of Chemical Engineering at Purdue University. He is also the Director of the Purdue-Mexico Center for Sustainability. His research interests are in chemical and catalytic reaction engineering, and clean energy technology. He has published over 280 archival journal research articles in these areas, co-authored three books and co-edited two books. He is the founding Editor (1996-present) of the Cambridge Series in Chemical Engineering, a series of textbooks and monographs published by the Cambridge University Press. He has received a number of awards for his research and teaching from AIChE, ASEE and ACS, and in 2010 was elected as a foreign member of Mexico’s Academy of Engineering.

7

Prof. enrico MartinezvisitinG Professor of cheMical enGineerinG

associate director, Purdue-Mexico center for sustainability

bioGraPhical inforMationDr. Enrico Martinez is currently Visiting Professor of Chemical Engineering at Purdue University. He received his Ph. D. and M. S. degrees in Chemical Engineering from the University of Notre Dame, and B. S. degree from UNAM. He served as full time professor for 2 years at the National University (UNAM) and 13 years at the Metropolitan University (UAM) in México City, where he founded the B. S., M. S. and Ph. D. programs from 1975 to 1988. He was Dean of Science and Engineering of UAM (1985-88) and joined Industrias Negromex (INSA) in 1988 as Technical Director becoming Operations Vice President in 1991. He was Technical Director for Dynasol Elastomeros from 1999 to 2005. He was Chairman of the Environmental Health Committee of the International Institute of Synthetic Rubber Producers (IISRP), 1989-1990, and served in the Institute’s Board of Directors-Americas Section from 1999 to 2005. He was Professor at the Instituto de Estudios Superiores de Tamaulipas (Anahuac Universities network, Mexico), 2006-2009, when he joined Purdue University. He received the Technical Award from IISRP in 2008 for his technical and scientific contributions to the rubber industry. He received the National Quality Award and the National Technology Award from the President of Mexico. He is Editor in Chief of the Journal of Enzyme Engineering.

8

Prof. nicholas carPita director, center for direct catalytic conversion of bioMass to biofuels, Purdue university

no carbon left behind: a neW ParadiGM in the conversion of bioMass to biofuels and hiGh-value ProductsCellulose, xylan and lignin are the principal macromolecules of lignocellulosic biomass in bioenergy crops such as grasses and fast-growing trees. Optimization of biomass yield and quality is predicated on the ability to capture partially reduced carbon from these macromolecular structures into biofuels and high-value chemicals. Our interdisciplinary team has developed chemical catalytic technologies for the disassembly of these macromolecules to monomers for subsequent transformations in the case of lignin and xylan, and new understandings of the mechanisms of fast-pyrolysis to produce oligomeric glucosans in the fuel range from cellulose. Genetic redesign of the lignin network simplifies its architecture to enable facile catalytic disassembly and conversion of aromatics. Our successes also include non-enzymatic removal of xylan from intact biomass and conversion to tetrahydrofuran; a genetically engineered pathway to increase catalytic iron in cell walls; and a new mechanism for pyrolytic conversion of cellulose to levoglucosan. Our vision is to optimize carbon and energy efficiencies of biomass conversion to liquid hydrocarbon fuels by the rescue, chemical reduction, and value added to all biomass-derived carbon – no carbon left behind.

bioGraPhical inforMationDr. Carpita holds a B. Sc. Biological Sciences degree from Purdue University and a Ph.D. degree, Plant Physiology, from Colorado State University. He is a fellow of the Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. His plant cell biology expertise focuses on the structure and biosynthesis of the plant cell wall, gene discovery in cell wall biology, and the improvement of grasses and related species as lignocellulosic bioenergy crops. He works primarily on mechanisms of biosynthesis and membrane topology of cellulose. He applies advanced biochemical methods to characterize cell-wall biogenesis-related genes and has pioneered chemical methods to identify genes in sorghum and maize that contribute to production and control of biomass yield and quality. He is recognized for his discovery of naturally occurring small-interfering RNAs of cellulose synthases that function in the regulation of suites of genes involved in primary and secondary wall formation.

9

Prof. victor M castaÑocentro de fÍsica aPlicada y tecnoloGÍa avanzada, unaM

the nanotech revolution: froM foodstuff to enerGyNanotechnology has become a very active area, not only in R&D, but in economics, as well. We will revise the fundamental technical aspects behind this important transdisciplinary specialty, with emphasis in the concepts which are producing new materials with improved performance. Then, a number of examples, ranging from batteries, electronics, advanced coatings and drugs, to automotive and aerospacial applications will be described.

bioGraPhical inforMationVictor M. Castaño received M.Sc and Ph.D. degrees from the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico (UNAM) and spent 2 years as a postdoctoral fellow at IBM´s Thomas J. Watson Research center (New York). He has authored and co-authored over 600 peer-review papers, is member of the Editorial Board of over 40 international journals and has received several awards in Mexico, the US and Europe. His interests are in the area of Materials Science, particularly in developing nano-sized materials for a number of uses, including water treatment technologies and nanomedicine. He is full-professor at the Centro de Fisica Aplicada y Tecnologia Avanzada (CFATA) of the UNAM.

10

Prof. JaiMe cervantes de Gortarifacultad de inGenieria, unaM

ParadiGMs in enGineerinG university ProGraMs: the case of MexicoA critical review of the relevant aspects of engineering educational programs in Mexico is presented, within the historical background and the near future tendencies of industrial activities. The traditional way of teaching and learning engineering at the Mexican universities, derived from the socioeconomic development during the second half of the twentieth century, is contrasted with the needed education for engineers at the beginning of the new century. The case of Mexico is examined: A country that rapidly changed from a rural and pre-industrial society prevailing up to the 1940 decade, to a modern industrialized nation consolidated in the 1950-1970 period. Several issues are considered, as: the educational programs based mainly on a generalist type of engineer suitable for the industrialization period, when the economic policy was based on the substitution of imports; the huge increase of the number of universities and educational programs during the 70´s and 80´s; the participation in the fully open market and the global economy characterizing the last two decades of the last century; etc. Within this context, the presentation considers the role of engineers at present, addressing the necessity for new educational programs with different contents and shorter duration, according to an era with new and deeper knowledge, rapid changing technology, and unforeseen possibilities for informatics.

bioGraPhical inforMationDr. de Gortari holds BSME and MSME degrees from the National University of Mexico, 1970, 1972 and a PhD from Purdue University, 1976. His research focuses on fluid mechanics and heat transfer, and he has authored over 150 publications including five textbooks. He is a Distinguished Professor and received the 2002 Universidad Nacional award as the Best Teacher in exact sciences from UNAM; and the 2007 Heberto Castillo prize from the Mexico City´s Government. He is a member of the Mexican Academy of Engineering, the Mexican Academy of Sciences and the International Centre for Heat and Mass Transfer. He is a Fellow of ASME.

11

Prof. claudio estrada Gascainstituto de enerGÍas renovables, unaM

bioGraPhical inforMationProf. Estrada is a physicist from UNAM and has a PhD degree in Mechanical Engineering from the New Mexico State University, USA. Prof. Estrada has been working for the Institute of Renewable Energy of UNAM since June 1988 and his areas of specific interest are transport phenomena in solar systems, mainly in solar concentration systems. He has published over 170 research papers in conferences and in journals of the Science Citation Index and is associate editor of the International Journal of Solar Energy. He has advised 34 theses (11 of doctorate). He is one of the most active and important promoters of solar energy in Mexico; he has been co-organizer and member of scientific committees of several national and international meetings. He has been president of the Mexican Association of Solar Energy (ANES) and member of the Board of Directors of the International Solar Energy Society (ISES).

He has won several awards, among them, the award from the Mexican Society of Physics for the Development of Physics in Mexico (2009). He was director of the Center for Energy Research of UNAM (dec 2004 - dec 2012), now Renewable Energy Institute. Under his term as Director, work was done to transform the Energy Research Center in the Institute of Renewable Energy in January 2013. At present, he is member of the National System of Researchers with Level III and he is responsible for the project National Laboratory on Solar Concentrating Systems and Solar Chemistry of Mexico.

12

Ms. cristina farMusManaGinG director school of cheMical enGineerinGPurdue university

research, education, and other collaborative resources available at Purdue university This talk will describe several resources available at Purdue University to foster interdisciplinary research and education, innovation, entrepreneurship, and international collaboration. Details will be given about the Purdue Research Park (including the Bindley Bioscience Center, the Birck Nanotechnology Center, and the Burton D. Morgan Entrepreneurship Center), the Purdue Research Park, and online education. A special section will be dedicated to the various centers at Purdue who have a sustainability component.

bioGraPhical inforMationCristina Farmus has a BS Degree from Transilvania University, Romania, and a Master’s of Business Administration from Krannert School of Management, Purdue University. She has been with the School of Chemical Engineering at Purdue since 2004 in positions of progressive responsibility. Her current role is to oversee all school operations and administrative areas including finances, computer network, facilities and infrastructure, corporate relations, and special initiatives. She was part of the team who organized the first Purdue – Mexico Sustainability workshop at Purdue in April 2013 and will maintain an active role in future activities of the Purdue – Mexico center.

13

Prof. antonio flores tlacuahuacdePartMent of cheMical enGineerinG, uia

desiGn of sustainable Products for bioethanol Manufacture, co2 caPture and loW-teMPerature enerGy recovery usinG MatheMatical oPtiMization techniQuesIn this talk we will address the problem of how to design new products for two main purposes: (a) The sustainable separation of the etanol/water azetropic mixture up to high-purity, (b) The capture of CO2 from combustion streams and for the efficient energy recovery from low-temperature processing streams. All these issues share a common factor: The design of a new kind of products for the sustainable and efficient use of new energy sources. We will show that the problem of how to design new products for achieving these aims can be cast as an Optimal Molecular Design Problem, where target design objectives, together with physical, thermodynamic and transport propertis of the designed compound, can be enforced such that performance requirements are met. Moreover, using optimization techniques, the design of the processing system, where the required separation or energy recovery operation takes places, can also be optimized leading to processes with better profit features. We will show some recent results obtained for the optimal molecular design of ionic liquids for high-purity ethanol recovery from cellulosic azeotropic ethanol-water mixtures, for the CO2 recovery from combustion streams and for the design of new organic compounds for energy capture from low temperature processing streams.

bioGraPhical inforMationAntonio Flores-Tlacuahuac is Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering of Universidad Iberoamericana University in Mexico City, where he conducts research in Process System Engineering. He is presently developing mathematical optimization tools for the sustainable and economical design of new products and involved in the development of new sustainable energy sources. He holds a PhD degree from the Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine, MS degree from Universidad Metropolitana-Iztapalapa and BS degree from Autonomous University of Puebla. He has taken sabbatical leaves (two times) at the Department of Chemical Engineering of Carnegie-Mellon University and summer research visits (two times) at the Technical University of Berlin, Germany.

14

Prof. GuillerMo Gossetinstituto de biotecnoloGia, unaM

Metabolic enGineerinG of escherichia coli for sustainable Production of aroMatic coMPounds Among chemical compounds, the aromatics play an important role in the chemical, pharmaceutical and food industries. Current manufacturing methods for this class of compounds are based mostly on chemical synthesis using precursors derived from petroleum. An alternative to the production schemes currently in use is the microbial synthesis using renewable resources as starting materials. A challenge in this effort is to develop strains displaying high productivity and yield in product formation. We have applied the tools of metabolic engineering for the generation and improvement of Escherichia coli as a host for the synthesis of several aromatic compounds. Our efforts have focused mostly on modifying the phosphotransferase transport system in order to increase availability of precursors for the aromatic pathways. These efforts have enabled the generation of E. coli strains for the high-yield production of phenylalanine, tyrosine, anthranilate. L-DOPA and melanin.

bioGraPhical inforMationProf. Gosset obtained his Ph.D. in Biotechnology from the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México in 1993. He is currently a Scientist at the Instituto de Biotecnología. His area of research is related to the study of microbial physiology and the application of metabolic pathway engineering to the development of microbial production strains. He has a total of 103 publications in journals and books and these works have been cited 1400 times. In 2005 he became a member of the Mexican Academy of Sciences and a Senior Editor of the “Journal of Molecular Microbiology and Biotechnology”.

15

Prof. iGnacio e. GrossMannr. dean university Professor of cheMical enGineerinG,

dePartMent of cheMical enGineerinG, carneGie Mellon university

oPtiMization Models for oPtiMal investMent, drillinG and Water ManaGeMent in shale Gas suPPly chainsThis presentation provides an overview of recent optimization models for shale gas production. We first describe a new mixed-integer optimization model for the design of shale gas infrastructures. The model is aimed at optimizing the selection of the number of wells to drill, size and location of new gas processing plants, location and length of pipelines, location and power of gas compressors, and planning of freshwater consumption from available reservoirs for well drilling and fracturing. The goal of this model is to maximize the net present value. We also describe a detailed operational model to optimize water use life cycle for well pads. The objective is to minimize transportation cost, treatment cost, freshwater cost, and additional infrastructure cost while also accounting for the credit of the production of shale gas within the specified time horizon. The goal is to determine an optimal fracturing schedule, recycling ratio, additional impoundment capacity, and treatment unit installation.

bioGraPhical inforMationIgnacio E. Grossmann is the R. Dean University Professor in Chemical Engineering and Director of the Center for Advanced Process Decision-making at Carnegie Mellon University. He holds degrees in B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from Universidad Iberoamericana and Imperial College. His research interests are in the areas of mixed-integer and disjunctive programming, energy and water systems, enterprise-wide optimization and stochastic programming. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, has received honorary doctorates from Abo Akademi, University of Maribor and Technical University of Dortmund. He has graduated over 50 Ph.D. students.

16

Prof. oscar Monroy-herMosillo Professor, dePartMent of biothechnoloGy, universidad autÓnoMa MetroPolitana

anaerobic diGestion for sustainable Water ManaGeMentWater needs in Mexico City are supplied by the over exploited aquifer (60%) and from other watersheds (40%). After usage it is disposed of in the sewers, together with rain water, and sent for irrigation more than 100 km away. There is practically no treatment and recycling (only 8%). Water is unequally distributed through the water net where 38% is lost through water leaks. To change this situation, a sustainable water management requires to be implemented considering the use of rain water, domestic and industrial water saving practices, wastewater treatment and reclamation, energy and nutrients recovery and aquifer equilibrium. With anaerobic digestion at the core of a sustainable technology shift, the net recharge of the aquifer and the reduction of water imports can be possible due to the city capacity of transforming organic wastes into energy which is required to obtain high quality reclaimed water.

bioGraPhical inforMationDr. Oscar Armando Monroy Hermosillo is a Profesor Titular in the Biotechnology Department, Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana, a National Researcher Level III within the Engineering and Biotechnology Area, and the President of the Watershed Commission “Rivers Amecameca & Co.” He holds a BSc in Chemical Engineering from the Facultad de Química, UNAM, an MSc in Environmental Control Engineering and Resource Utilization from Strathclyde University, Scotland, UK, and a PhD in Biotechnology also from UNAM.

He has been a member of the Mexican National System of Researchers since 1990, a member of the Mexican Academy of Science since 1998 and a member of the Mexican Academy of Engineering since 2006.

17

Prof. arvind raManschool of Mechanical enGineerinG, Purdue university

characterization of coMPlex Materials for enerGy, Medical and environMental aPPlications usinG advanced dynaMic atoMic force MicroscoPy MethodsMulti-scale, multi-functional materials occur in a number of man-made and natural systems that are related to energy, environment and health. Such materials range from nano-composites for energy harvesting and storage to wood cells to nano-cellulose based composites and live cells to active biomaterials. The nanoscale structure and interfaces of such materials often control their material properties and bulk behavior. Thus there is a great need for high resolution nanoscale resolution imaging that goes much beyond topography characterization to mapping of multiple physical properties. The Atomic Force Microscope (AFM) is a cornerstone instrument for mapping such properties. In this talk I will provide an overview of advanced techniques using the AFM that provided unprecedented insight into research on live cells under action of drugs, nano-cellulose and enzymatic action on wood cells, and sub-surface characterization of carbon nanotube/graphene/fullerene based nanocomposites for photovoltaic, flexible electronics and energy storage applications.

bioGraPhical inforMationDr. Arvind Raman is the Robert V. Adams Professor of Mechanical Engineering with interests in applied nonlinear dynamics, nanomechanics, and fluid-structure interactions. His group has significantly advanced the understanding of complex dynamics in nanotechnology applications such as Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) and micro- and nano-electromechanical systems (MEMS/NEMS), in gyroscopic systems for data storage and manufacturing, in electronics cooling, and in biomechanics. He has mentored fifteen PhD students, co-authored more than a hundred and twenty journal articles, held visiting positions at the Universidad Autonoma de Madrid (Spain), University of Oxford (UK), and Darmstadt University of Technology (Germany), and secured funding from the NSF, NIH, NASA, NNSA, and several national and international industrial sponsors. He is an ASME fellow and recipient of the Gustus Larson Memorial Award from the ASME, Keeley fellowship (Wadham College, Oxford), College of Engineering outstanding young investigator award, and the NSF CAREER award. At Purdue he has pioneered the use of cyber-infrastructure in the AFM community for research and education through advanced simulation tools and online classes which are used by thousands around the world and led College of Engineering strategic initiatives for global engagement in Latin America. He is currently the Associate Dean for Global Programs in Engineering.

18

Prof. doraisWaMi raMkrishnaschool of cheMical enGineerinGPurdue university

toWards increased Productivity of biofuels & cheMicals by Metabolic enGineerinGA collaborative research program is envisaged between two research groups, one from Purdue University led by Professor D. Ramkrishna with an established record of contributions to modeling of biological systems, and the other from the University of Mexico led by Professor Guillermo Gosset of the University of Mexico with an established experimental program and record of contributions to metabolic engineering for various applications.

The novelty of the proposed research program lies in the development of a genome scale dynamic modeling framework built to meet the challenge of increasing productivities of metabolic products which is beyond the scope of currently available constraint-based methods to metabolic engineering. The Gosset lab is fully equipped with the facilities and research personnel for the extensive complementary experimental effort required to establish the new dynamic framework for applications. The potential for vastly improving the competitiveness of bio-based products from the foregoing collaboration fits well with the goals of the Purdue-Mexico workshop on Sustainability.

bioGraPhical inforMationDoraiswami Ramkrishna is the H.C. Peffer Distinguished Professor of Chemical Engineering at Purdue University since 1994. He received his BSChE from the University of Bombay in 1960, and his PhD from the University of Minnesota in 1965. His research interests are in the application of mathematics to chemical and biochemical reaction engineering, particulate processes and biomedical engineering. He has published over 240 papers, two books, directed over 50 graduate students and numerous post-docs. He has numerous AIChE, Distinguished alumnus, AIMBE, Senior Humboldt, and research excellence awards. He is a member of the US National Academy of Engineering and a foreign member of the Indian National Academy of Engineering.

19

Prof. eduardo reinoso anGuloinstituto de inGenieria, unaM

research and exchanGe oPPortunities in MexicoDuring the last 30 years, the methodologies for natural risk assessment have developed exponentially thanks to computers and geocoded building and infrastructure databases. The insurance and financial sectors have been pushing the limits of this risk assessment so they can have reasonably good estimations of expected losses of their portfolios for a given return period. National governments are following this trend so they can be financially prepared for infrequent and unexpected natural hazards such as hurricanes and earthquakes. In this work, such methodologies will be presented together with some recent examples. More applications such as early warning systems and alerts based not only on the hazard but also on risk assessment are already being used and will be briefly presented.

bioGraPhical inforMationDr. Reinoso is a Civil Engineer from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). He received his Ph. D. degree from Wessex Institute of Technology, Southampton, England and is a full-time researcher at the Institute of Engineering UNAM and CEO of ERN (Evaluación de Riesgos Naturales) a leading private company devoted to offer engineering and risk management solutions to the insurance sector and governments. His main field of research has been the evaluation of seismic and hurricane risk of buildings. He has published more than 120 technical papers in national and international conferences, books and journals. One of these papers won the “Outstanding Paper Award of 1999” given by the Earthquake and Engineering Research Institute (EERI).

conference coordinator

Cristina FarmusManaging Director, School of Chemical Engineering

cfarmus@purdue.eduOffice: 765-494-0027 | Cell: 765-430-6067