Emilio Rosenblueth Deutsch (1926–1994) was a Mexican

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who Invention, invent, design, build, maintain and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials. They aim to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while ...

who devoted himself to the research of seismic events, and in particular to study the behavior of buildings against

earthquakes An earthquakealso called a quake, tremor, or tembloris the shaking of the Earth's surface resulting from a sudden release of energy in the lithosphere that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes can range in intensity, from those so weak they c ...

and other seismic activity. Born in

Mexico City Mexico City is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Mexico, largest city of Mexico, as well as the List of North American cities by population, most populous city in North America. It is one of the most important cultural and finan ...

, Rosenblueth was the only child of Emilio Rosenblueth Stearns and Charlotte Deutsch Kleinman.Ing. Emilio Rosenblueth, Figura mundial de la Ingeniería Sísmica
/ref> They came to Mexico from

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

as refugees before he was born.

University Studies

Emilio Rosenblueth grew up in a family of leading researchers, so from an early age he was inclined towards the sciences. He became interested in seismic phenomena due to the location of his hometown and its high propensity for earthquake activity. He began his university studies at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM for its name in Spanish) where he obtained a bachelor's degree in 1948. He received a master's degree in 1949 and a PhD in 1951 from the University of Illinois. He was an advisor to Unesco and the Organization of American States (OAS) on seismic and scientific research. He was a member of Mexican and foreign academies and associations, such as the Academia de la Investigación Científica, the Colegio de Ingenieros Civiles de México, the Sociedad Mexicana de Ingeniería Sísmica, the Sociedad Mexicana de Mecánica de Suelos, the American Society of Civil Engineers, the American Concrete Institute, the Seismological Society of America, the International Association for Earthquake Engineering, the Asociación Latinoamerican de Sismología e Ingeniería Antisísmica, the Unión Panamericana de Asociaciones de Ingenieros, and the National Academy of Sciences of the United States.

Awards and distinctions

* Scientific Research Award of the Mexican Academy of Sciences, 1963. * Member of El Colegio Nacional on April 4, 1972. * Luis Elizondo" Science Award in 1973. * National Award of Sciences and Arts in the area of Physical-Mathematical and Natural Sciences by the Mexican Government in 1974. * Emeritus Researcher of the Institute of Engineering of the UNAM in 1988. * Prince of Asturias Award, by the government of Spain in 1985. * In his honor, the secondary school 305, located in Guadalupe I. Ramírez, s/n, Potrero de San Bernardino is named after him.

References

1926 births 1994 deaths 20th-century Mexican engineers Engineers from Mexico City National Autonomous University of Mexico alumni Academic staff of the National Autonomous University of Mexico Mexican people of German descent TWAS fellows Foreign associates of the National Academy of Sciences National Prize for Arts and Sciences (Mexico) Earthquake engineering {{Seismology-stub