Juan Aguirre

I was born in Tampico, Tamaulipas, México, on May 15th 1945, my parents Eva and Juan were Professional Teachers until their retirement. When I was 12 years old, in the company of my father and other hikers, I ascended the Popocatepetl, in the following two years with the same group, I ascended the other two snow-capped volcanoes of Mexico; the Iztaccihualtl and the Citlantepetl -the highest mountain in the country-. When I was in the Secondary School my Physics Professor organized a contest of making apparatusses to demostrates some physics principles; I got the second prize and since then I tought of becoming a Physics Professional. Those were the post Sputnik days and, naturaly, I became very interested in Space Physics, my father, from a Conference in San Antonio, Texas, brought me the book titled Rocket Propulsion Elements, from which I learned to design and build stainless steel one inch diameter rocket nozzles and asphalt with potassium perchlorate combustion cylinders, whose push I measured in an static test base that I designed and constructed in our garden. I got the BSc in Mathematical Physics from the Monterrey Institute of Technology, MIT, in 1966, I was the best student in the class. During the last semester I was appointed research assistant to the Dean of Physics to collaborate in the proyect titled Analysis and Synthesis of the Human Voice. Once we both were in the Lab and someone knocked at the door, when I opened the door I saw that the visitor was the founder of our Monterrey MIT, a graduate from the Massachusets MIT, Don Eugenio Garza Sada who provided the funds and supervised our project. After teaching college physics there for one year I got a full scholarship from the National Council of Science and Technology of Mexico, CONACYT, to get the PhD in Chemical Physics from the University of Maryland, UMd, which I did in 7 semesters without getting the Master's Degree, all my grades were A's and B's, my PhD dissertation tesis was about the Brownian Theory of Two Interacting Particles, an advance from the 1905 Albert Einstein Theory of Diffusion. Once I met my advisor before deciding which courses I should take next, he very politely asked me for my opinion, I told him that I wanted to take the course on General Relativity because since I was 15 years I dreamed that some day I was going to understand those laws, his immediate response was negative for a number of reason; first of all, that course was not in the area of Chemical Physics, but also he said that even the students that needed to take that course might be considering waiting for the next ocassion becase this time the Instructor was Charles Nisner, the author of the book titled Gravitation and shurely a candidate to the Nobel Price. At the end he authorized me to take, and enjoy, that beautiful course. On the Statistical Physics area, I was very fortunate of having taken courses from more than five of the first class Experts at that time. After returning to Mexico I worked for our MIT, the State University of Nuevo Leon, UANL, and the Regiomontana University, U-ERRE, both as a Professor-Researcher and/or as an Academic Executive. I also worked as a Manager of Research and Development in some of the best local mexican companies, I am the co-author of a USPO Patent for a physical process to eliminate iron oxide from the surface of sand particles, I also contributed in the development of a drilling fluid for petroleos Mexicanos, PEMEX. When I was 46 years old I ran de Midnight Sun Marathon of Trompso, Norway. I was a local pioneer in the creation of educational TV programs; I wrote the scripts and conducted 18 Chemistry programs and 36 Physics programs for the High School curriculum, I also wrote the scripts and conducted, with my wife, daughters and son, a series of entertaining science TV programs for the family, called the Chest of Galileo. I was the founder of the State Council of Science and Technology, and worked there for 12 years, mostly in promoting the development of Biotechnology in our State; I was the main Organizer of a series of 6 Biotechnology International Congresses and Exhibitions named BioMonterrey. I was the Director of the First Mexican Forsight Exercise in Industrial Technology 2002-2015, paid by the CONACYT. I retired in 2011 after the resection of an spine tumor, after that I have been doing research in Complex Systems in the fields of Phyics, Chemistry and Social Transformations. I married Gloria in 1966; at this moment we have 2 daughters, Nancy and Katheryn, one son, Juan, 7 grand daughters, Paulina, Regina, Katheryn, Miranda, Fernanda, Chantal and Elizeth, 2 grand sons, Patricio and Juan, and one grand grand daughter Daniela. I am a practicing Catholic and a Mexican proud of my ancestral culture.