About

Prof. Fuentes was Secretary of the Latin American Division of IAHR during the period 1978-2006. In this role he strongly influenced for three decades, Latin American researchers and engineers in participating and organising the regular Latin America Division biennial congresses -15 during his term - which in the most recent editions received more than 400 technical contributions and have attracted up to 500 delegates. He is a Civil Engineer, graduated from the Universidad de Chile (1964), Hydraulic Engineer (1967) and with a Doctor in Physics from the University of Grenoble (1969). He was a founder member of the Hydraulic Engineering Society of Chile and Member of the first Board of Directors. He was a researcher and Head of the Hydraulics Laboratory at Universidad de Chile (1964-1975), of the National Hydraulic Laboratory of Venezuela (1976-1988), and of the Fluid Dynamics group at the Center for Mining and Metallurgical Research in Chile (1971-1975). He has delivered lectures, training and postgraduate courses in Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Venezuela, Costa Rica, Cuba, Peru, Brazil, Zaire, Niger and India. He has also been a consultant in problems related to the mining industry and has carried out spillway investigations and fluvial hydraulics projects in several countries. The scientific fields of hydraulic science where Prof. Fuentes made significant contributions (expressed in more than 150 published papers and several books) cover a wide spectrum from fundamental fluid mechanics, the physical and mathematical modeling of hydraulic phenomena, sediment transport and the application of hydraulics to the mining industry. In addition to his long-standing position as Secretary of the IAHR LAD, his commitment to IAHR is more than evident, he served as Section Member of the Experimental Methods and Fluid Mechanics (1979-1985), Fluvial Hydraulics (1983-1987), Council Member (1980-1984) and, member of the Committee which led to changing the structure of the IAHR (1984-1987). In 2000 he was awarded the Chilean Ministry of Mines Alexander Sutulov Award. The merits of Prof. Fuentes are recognized by the whole community of our Association, as a brilliant researcher, an outstanding professor and a great promoter of IAHR-LAD activities over several decades. He has also been involved in the mentoring and career guidance of successful hydraulic researchers and engineers of most Latin American countries.

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